


What Goes Around Comes Around, Like a Carousel

by NaraGal95



Series: Only One Of Us Needs To Fall That Hard [8]
Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: ALL the tags, Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe, Angels are actually Dicks, Angst, Anything goes - Freeform, Battle, Blood and Violence, Character Death, Established Relationship, Explicit Language, Fallen Angel Lucifer Magne, Feelings Check, Hate Speech, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, Leadership, M/M, Major Character Injury, Minor Charlie Magne/Vaggie, Minor Lucifer Magne/Lilith Magne, Original Character(s), Pain, Secrets, Teamwork, Violent Actions, Violent Scenes, long chapters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:13:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 26,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24653635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaraGal95/pseuds/NaraGal95
Summary: Angel Dust has been a demon for a several years now. His new life in Hell has fallen (pun intended) into a peaceful pattern; work at the hotel, help redeem sinners, love the Radio Demon, and spend time with his friends and family. However, all good things come to an end… or so the saying goes.The continuation of Part 1 in the series (three years after the ending of Part 1). Heaven is getting more persistent and angrier in their yearly attacks. The Fallen angel is feeling anxious at the severity of their attacks and he fears Heaven’s retribution may be may be reaching its peak.Angel feels like his heart is being torn in two; worry and anxiety striking the stake into his heart. One night he has a dream that feels much too real. Is it a premonition of what’s to come?Alastor only want to live happily and peacefully with his angel but he is in the dark of Angel's torment. The closer he gets to Angel the more he worries he’ll one day lose him. Is there a reason he should worry?
Relationships: Alastor/Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Charlie Magne/Vaggie, Lilith Magne/Lucifer Magne
Series: Only One Of Us Needs To Fall That Hard [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1738963
Comments: 15
Kudos: 152





	1. It Came To Me In A Dream

</|\> </|\> </|\>

The spider demon rushed up to the front desk, exhaling heavily as he leaned on the desk. Talia, a squirrel demon who has been working at the hotel for a little over two years, watched the spider with wide eyes. She played with a curl of her shoulder length, chestnut colored hair, twirling the curl around her finger. The demon had died in the 1990s and it showed on her appearance; what with the black tank, the cream-colored dovetail coat, and white and green tartan knee high socks she wore. She looked like she came out of a Brittney Spears music video.

Angel sighed then, meeting the girl’s golden eyes, her long ears flicking as their gaze met. “Hit me with that gas, Talia.” Angel demands then, another heavy breath escaping him.

“Sure thing, Spindly Arms.” She says in response, green gas floating from her hands and towards Angel, the spider inhaling sharply to let the gas into his lungs. “That’s like the fifth time this week you’ve asked for this, Angel. Are you okay? You know it’s never okay to keep things bottled up. I mean look at me! Should of just talked to my family instead of killing myself but, hey, live or let learn right? I think that’s how that song goes…”

“Live and let die, Talia.” Angel corrects her. “But close.”

The bushy tail behind her flicked. "I think I like live and let learn better. Less death. Death is bad. Unless it's good. Like killing a rapist... or a murderer. Or a rapist murderer. Did you know that a lot of states no longer have the death penalty? Shame, really. Some folks up there deserve death. And Hell. And maybe a second death. I wonder where everyone goes after a second death. Do you know?" Angel shook his head, still taking in deep breaths of the calming toxin floating around him. “Oh, well. Maybe we'll find out one day. Shame if ones dies here they just can't come back and let us know where they went." A couple seconds passed as her tail flicked again in thought. "Anyhoo, don’t think you can avoid the question, Angel. Are you okay? It seems lately you’re more on edge and then the next thing I know you’re jumpy like a cat with a cucumber. Which, what is it with that? Have you seen those videos? Like there’s a cat doing whatever cats do or whatever and then it like skyrockets into the air when it sees a damn cucumber! I just don’t understand it, do you?”

The squirrel demon prattles on, Angel listening as best as he could to her but even with her calming gas his heart was having a hard time slowing its heart rate. He’s been like this since the last extermination day, an overpowering sense of dread following him since a very hard matched battle to defend the hotel against the forces of Heaven once again. As the years pressed onwards they were getting more adamant, hitting harder and harder and Alastor and himself were finding it more and more difficult to protect the hotel. Even with his shield around the hotel to protect it against angels entering, Angel Dust didn’t know how many well-placed hits it would take to break it.

After a couple moments of Talia’s steady stream of calming fog, he finally tuned back into the squirrel’s ramblings. The poor demon was a sufferer of ADHD and sometimes she just couldn’t shut up and in Hell there’s no such thing as Adderall. Even now as Angel once again picks up into the conversation, he wondered how in the hell she even got to this point in the conversation. “—like maybe I should bring it up to the princess? Do you think she could talk to the king about adding another park in the city? I know Hell’s not really known for its trees and parks but I like nature! Maybe it could help other demons! But… perhaps its better if its closer to us right? As an added activity? Picnics in the parks and such?”

Giving it a couple more seconds Angel nodded. The squirrel was infamous for not liking to be interrupted, it being a pet peeve of hers as she was always interrupted or ignored when she was alive. It was no better in Hell. “That’s… a good idea. Maybe we should talk to Charlie about it.” With an added sigh the ex-angel finally responds to her question, which started her whole tangent. “An’ I’m fine… just tired.”

Talia stops the flow of gas at that but her eyes still were unconvinced. “Doesn’t look like you’re just tired. You look like something the cat brought in… and I’m not talking about Husker either. All he brings in is more alcohol and gambling problems, amirite?” She chuckles, rolling her eyes at some of the antics of her coworkers, her hand brushing against the series of three piercings on her left ear, silver chains connecting to each piercing, her other hand thumbing the matching silver chains around her neck.

“Well, I’m fine. Just busy an’—“

“Another demon is being redeemed!” The yell echoed from down the hall, making Angel groan softly.

Talia eyes him carefully as she turned to the scoreboard they added when the redemptions were getting more prevalent, it now being a way to track redeemed sinners. She turned the dial and added a number to the end, the number now reading 3,456 as to which she laughs and points at it. “Look, Spindly Arms! Three, four, five, six! Not bad for four years since you Fell, huh?” She turns to face the spider demon again, her face dropping at his expression. “Doesn’t make you happy anymore, does it?”

Angel hummed, stretching his four arms upwards as he stretched out his back; audible pops hearing from multiple joints. “No, it’s not that.” He insists as he rolls his shoulders and rubs his neck. “It’s just that every time we have another success I always get busier.”

“Have you talked to Alastor? Or Charlie about it?”

“No.”

“You probably should. You deserve a break. And I’m sure Bambi won’t like it if you’re hiding stuff from him.” She gasps suddenly, her hands slapping over her mouth. “Don’t tell me you haven’t told him about me gassing you either!”

“I haven’t but I—“

She gasps again, this time she placing her hand on the desk to hold herself up. “Shit, he’s gonna kill me!”

“He’s not gonna—“

“He’s always so protective of you! If he finds out what I’ve been doing and he gets the wrong idea or— _gasp_ —what if he already knows? _Oooh_! I don’t wanna skinned and put into a soup!”

“Talia, he’s not—“

“Please, Alastor! I’d rather be a nice steak or a hamburger! Wait, no… maybe a soup _would_ be best. I can think about it like a last final bath. Streak or hamburger means I’ll be grilled and that doesn’t sound pleasant. Do you think I’d make a nice soup? Maybe with bread? Would he turn my eyes into jam? That might be nice. Or—"

“ _Talia_!” Angel yelled, causing the squirrel demon to jump. “I’m sorry for interruptin’ but he’s _not_ gonna kill ya. He’s made that promise to doll face that he won’t harm anyone in the hotel. Though I guess… he could still threaten ya. He’s done that quite bit that I know of.”

Talia sigh heavily, perhaps in relief, and calms down. “I can deal with threatening. Do you think my knock out gas would work on him? Maybe that would give me enough time to run away.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it.” Angel says with a small smile. “You’re not gonna tell anyone about this right?”

“Mums the word.” She responds back instantly. “If Bambi, or anyone for that matter, doesn’t know about this, then it won’t be from me that they hear it from.”

“Thanks, Talia.” The ex-angel says before glancing down towards the hall where a demon was recently redeemed. “I guess I should get back to work.”

“So long, Spindly! Keep up the good work!”

“You too.” Angel says dismissively as he walks away, restraining a groan as the anxiety once again rose up from inside him.

</|\> </|\> </|\>

That night Angel laid in bed, his eyes staring up at the dream catcher Alastor puts above their beds, both here and at the station. It had done its job quite well over the past several years but of course it only worked if Angel even falls asleep in the first place. With a dejected sigh he glances at his lover, asleep beside him with his back turned to him. The spider turned onto his side to better scan over the back of the Radio Demon. It was still amazing to the spider how so much power and strength can come from those wide yet skinny shoulders. Though, physically speaking, the Radio Demon wasn’t too impressive, he could still strike terror into others with his magic. A clawed hand reached forward, gently placing it between the deer’s shoulders.

In all this time the deer has stopped flinching at every other touch, getting more used to physical touch due to the Fallen angel. He still didn’t approve of others willy nilly touching him but it was a start. Even now Angel couldn’t tell if he didn’t flinch because of this or because he was asleep but he also made sure his touch was gentle as to not to disturb the other demon. He pulled the hand away not long after, bringing it to his chest in a fist. He was going to make another attempt to fall asleep, sighing heavily once more to try to relax himself before closing his eyes, trying to empty his mind of any thoughts.

Moments later Angel opened his eyes again, Alastor’s back still towards him. With a soft groan he sat up, rolling his neck and getting it to pop a couple times. It was while he did this that his eyes fell onto a figure sitting at their breakfast table. Angel spawned guns on all four of his hands and pointed them to the figure, releasing a breath as soon his mind caught up to his eyes. His arms dipped then, the guns still pointed at the figure. “You’re shittin’ me…” The spider’s voice whispered into the dark room.

The being stood then, standing tall, as tall as Angel, revealing a floor length dress, from the waist down white peacock feathers lining the skirt of the dress, the long train pooling around the being’s covered feet. The dress had a sweetheart neckline, flowery lace coming straight across the collarbone, framing the neckline as is formed around the being’s breasts. A tulle cape came from the shoulders, draping down the back all the way down past the floor. Gold beading draped from the shoulders down the being’s bare arms, coming to meet golden bracers around the forearms, a crown sitting upon the being’s long, straight white hair; golden roses and leaves upon their head as golden spikes formed a halo around the being’s head. The being placed their hands before their midsection in an upside prayer hands, the voice emitting from the being sounding strong, confident; it sounded like a harp as it radiated in the room. “Good evening, Anthony.”

Angel couldn’t help the deranged giggle that escaped him. “I really am dreamin’ ain’t I? A high bein’ of Heaven visitin’ me? Bullshit.” The spider then despawned the weapons and laid back down in bed, covering his head with the comforter.

The being blinked head tilting slightly to the side. “Anthony, is that any way to treat a guest?” Angel ignored the being, the comforter going tighter around his head. Without saying a word it walked over to Alastor’s side of the bed, not a single noise emitting as they bent down to stare at the sleeping Radio Demon in the face, not at all concerned for if the other were to suddenly awaken. “I was wondering as to what sort of being you Fell for, Anthony. I cannot say if I approve of this choice.”

With that Angel sits up again, eyes immediately looking to where the Heavenly being was standing previously only to quickly notice they were no longer there. “Get away from him.” The spider demon warned, finding himself standing out of bed slowly, his satin pajamas sticking to him.

The being made no move to step away but instead straightened. “You must not worry, Anthony. I am not here to hurt your demon nor am I here to cause you distress. I simply want a tour.”

The ex-angel blinked, confusion blossoming out of his eyes. “Say what now?”

“A tour.” The being repeats, finally stepping away from Alastor to walk around the bed, stopping before the awake demon. “I want to know if this establishment you deem important enough to protect really should be protected.”

Angel’s heart beat like a drum in his chest, his hands twitching at his sides. “Is this a demand from the Heavens itself?”

“You are no longer an angel, Anthony. I have no power over you. If you refuse me then I shall simply have to leave.” Angel scoffed, eying his mate carefully as he slept. “Do not worry. He shall not wake.”

The spider’s eyes jutted back up to the pure white being, eyes narrowing in distrust. “What did ya do to him?” Alastor was known to not be a heavy sleeper. Angel himself was surprised the demon was still asleep during all this but now he _knows_ that this being has something to do with it.

“A sleeping spell of course. It helped that he was already asleep, made it easier to take root. Do not fret, he shall awaken at morning’s light.”

Angel sigh turned into laughter as he brought a hand to his forehead in utter disbelief. “Ya just come in here, in _our_ room an’ just pull this shit! A _tour_? Why now? Why after the quick judgment of this place? The persistent struggle to keep tryin’ to destroy it year after year?”

The being straight up ignored the questions, their face blank and expressionless as golden eyes stared into Angel’s mismatched ones. “I am simply requesting a tour, Anthony. As I said, you may deny me if you wish. I wanted to see this establishment for myself especially seeing at the amount of successes it has produced.”

“That’s another thing…” The spider started, crossing all four arms before him. “Why even attack us? It’s not like redeemed sinners gets wings an’ become angels. They head to Elysium an’ just live the rest of their existence in bliss, like the Heaven all humans like to think of. An’ Elysium’s endless— _literally_ infinite. It’s not like there’s a population issue up there.”

“So it is ‘us,’ now?”

“It has been ever since I Fell.”

“I suppose that is accurate.” The being half turns then, the dress curling around the being’s legs as they did so.

“What’s the whole point of this tour ya want anyway?”

“As I said, I wish to see this establishment for myself.” The being responded not looking at Angel then. “I suppose it was foolish to hope for it to happen. But I will not overstay my welcome; it is why I sought you out first to have you be my guide.”

Angel groaned, the feeling one gets after disappointing a child bubbling inside him. “I’m assumin’ the whole hotel is under your ‘spell’?”

“That is correct, but as I said they will—“

“Awaken at morning’s light, yeah, yeah.” After a beat of silence the spider demon groaned heavily, running a clawed hand through his hair. “Ugh, _fine_! I can’t sleep anyways…” The demon muttered, walking briskly past the Heavenly being as he grabbed his pink robe, putting it on quickly and tying the strap around his waist. “Well, follow me then, an’ don’t think about wanderin’.”

“I appreciate it, Anthony.” The being says, ignoring the warning as they follow the spider demon out of his room, the demon leading him immediately down the stairs to the lobby.

“This is the lobby, obviously.” Angel states. “The desk there is where we check in demons, ya can also get room service, concierge services, whatever, here. The counter there tracks our redeemed sinners.”

The being approaches the desk in silence, hands now clasped neatly behind their back as they silently looked over everything. The rest of the tour continued like this, the being not saying another word as Angel lead them throughout the main floor; to the conference rooms and multipurpose rooms, the kitchen, the library, the parlor, the recreation room, the gym, the sauna rooms for male and female demons, and even the indoor pool, magically added by Alastor just months ago. The spider demon leads the being to the music room last, it being the farthest away from all the other room.

The spider demon turned as he stopped before the piano, eying the being carefully. “An’ finally the music room. Like everythin’ else we do therapy in here for demons who are a bit more musically inclined.”

“Ah, yes.” The being finally speaks looking at the wall of different instruments. “I do know that music does work wonders.”

“How? It ain’t allowed in Heaven.”

“I have seen it on Earth. Many humans lead their lives by it and in turn can be healed by it.”

Angel rolls his eyes. “If it works so well on Earth why is it denied in Heaven?”

“It is simply a distraction. Makes it harder to regulate and maintain angelic populations.”

“Ya mean it makes it harder to _oppress_ the angels _.”_ The spider demon remarks, briskly walking past the being again to stand out in the hallway. The being doesn’t respond and follows behind the demon patiently waiting for the next locale within the hotel. “That’s it for this floor,” Angel eventually says. “The rest of the floors are rooms an’ some other parlors just for socialization, no bars in them like the one down here. Only thing left is the roof if ya wanna look at it but it’ll take a moment to—“

Within a flash the spider demon finds himself up on the roof, their positions the same as if they were still standing in the hallway. Angel instantly feels nauseous and moves to sit down at the nearest bench, groaning as he hugs his stomach. “ _For fuck’s sake_ …” The demon curses as the nausea slowly disappears. “Ya an’ Alastor both like doin’ this shit.”

“My apologies.” Angel bit his tongue, to prevent him to say something he might later regret, and watches as the being inspects the gardens, which has seen much growth and expansion after the Fallen angel and the Princess of Hell finally nailed how to take care of plants in Hell. “Quite impressive. I would have never suspected that plants like these grew in Hell.”

“Ain’t easy.” Angel comments as he stands. “The princess an’ I waste a lot of time an’ energy up here but the gardens also work as therapy. Gives demons here somethin’ to work on that symbolizes their growth an’ shit.”

“Everything has a purpose here.”

“Ya say that as if it’s so fuckin’ shockin’.”

“Perhaps I am shocked.” The Heavenly being states, turning their golden eyes onto the spider demon. “May I ask you a question, Anthony?”

“Ya just did.”

The Heavenly being ignored that. “You have been all three beings; human, angel and finally demon. Which do you believe is the better?”

The spider demon blinked at the being an eyebrow raised. “Better? I woulda thought ya would just side with the angels. ‘Heavenly perfection’ an’ all.”

“This is a matter of your opinion, Anthony.” The being responds, hands finally moving from behind them to once again go into their upside down prayer hands. Angel’s eyebrow dropped as he truly thought about the question. His gaze turned towards Pentagram City as he thought about it, the being watching him in silence patiently. Minutes passed and an answer had not been spoken. The Heavenly being speaks then. “I suppose you need not answer if you cannot think of an answer, or if you do not wish to. I shall thank you for the tour and—“

“Neither.” Angel suddenly responds then, his gaze turning to the other being, their face finally showing an expression of surprise. “There’s pros an’ cons to all three.” He finally elaborates, holding back a snide comment on the surprised expression. “Humans can live their lives however they wish but their souls are bound to either be damned to Hell or worthy enough to enter Heaven regardless of belief in religion or not. Angels _are_ Heavenly perfection; powerful, strong, pure but they’re constantly monitored, _oppressed_ , as I said earlier an’ that’s just not a way to live. Meanwhile demons, they have it the shittiest. They’re _literally_ in Hell for their sins but they can do whatever the fuck they want; don’t matter what sins they commit they’re already here won’t change shit, ‘specially if ya don’t care ‘bout redemption.”

“It sounds like you prefer being a demon, then.”

“It’s not that I prefer it,” Angel states, heaving a sigh as he crosses his arms before him. “Perhaps it is better, for me, but that’s only ‘cause I’m extremely lucky. I have a good, satisfying job, friends an’ family that love an’ accept me for who _I_ am; _truly_ am, cross dressin’ fag an’ all. An’ I have Alastor he…” Angel’s sentence drifts of as he inhales sharply. “He _loves_ me. For _all_ of me. He didn’t care that I was an angel an’ he a demon. He didn’t care that I’m queer. He supports an’ protects me an’ I do the same for him I…” A tear slips from his eyes then, his heart tightening in his chest so much he brings a hand to it, clutching at the robe above his heart. “I have a feelin’ that no matter what changes there are in the universe; what differences there are that creates different path; I will _always_ fall for him. I would fall for him over an’ over again. I will always love him…”

A sob escaped as the tears blurred his vision. He turns his back to the being and brings his hands to his eyes as he continues to cries, the sobs turning to wails as pain enters his body from out of nowhere. Pains that didn’t feel like his own but at the same time he knew they were also his. Pains from unrequited love; pains from betrayal; physical, emotional and mental they were all there strumming from inside his soul, crying out for relief.

The Heavenly being remains still, watching as the demon cries his soul out. “Tell me, Anthony, do you truly believe in this… hotel?”

The spider demon inhaled sharply suddenly thankful for the question to distract him from his thoughts and pain. “Yes.” He responds as he turns to face the other, drying the tears off his face as he wills them to stop flowing from his eyes. “Honestly, even I weren’t a Fallen angel myself I think Charlie—the princess—would’ve been able to redeem sinners. Obviously with more work needin’ to be put in but… she’s really headstrong, passionate an’ determined. I’m sure she woulda made it without me bein’ what I was.” A beat passes and the demon exhales gently. “In fact… if I were gone tomorrow, for whatever reason, I think they could go on without me. I taught them enough an’ they know what to look for now…”

The Heavenly being hums in return, a melodious thing really, somehow calming the demon. “I greatly appreciate the tour you have given me, Anthony.” They say then, changing the subject once again. “I shall leave shortly, but first, let me present you a gift, as in thanks and apologies for breaking my word and distressing you.”

This made the demon sputter, all feelings of the distress he felt earlier all but gone. “Ha! Fat chance. First of all, demon now remember? Acceptin’ a gift from the Heavens is a _bit_ taboo an’ I ain’t down for it. Plus, any gift from the Heavens comes with a favor to be repaid an’ I ain’t buyin’.” The demon turns, lazily waving at the being as he begins to walk away. “You’re welcome for the tour though, I ain’t sure what it accomplished but as long as you’re leavin’ now.”

“You will be wise to accept this gift, Anthony. It will help you in the future.” This attracts the demon’s attention as he freezes in place. “There is… unrest in the Kingdom and I am afraid that not even the Heavens Themselves will be able to prevent it.”

“So God does have Their limitations.” Angel snides, turning to face the Heavenly being once more.

“Creators, They may be, controller They are not.”

“But _controlling_ They are.”

The being ignores the insult and closes the distance between them silently. “I can not force you to accept this gift, but I implore you to. Perhaps the Heavens were too quick to judge this establishment—“

“Admittin’ a mistake? Is Hell gonna freeze over too?”

“—But perhaps the Heavens can provide a last resort to protect it. But you _must_ accept it with your soul, Anthony.”

The spider demon rolls his eyes with an added sigh. “If I accept it, will ya leave? For real an' I'll wake up from this weird ass dream?”

“Yes.” The being responds simply.

With another, much longer sigh, Angel nodded. “Fine, I’ll take it. It better be good, though.”

A beat passed between them and the being actually sighed in relief, which surprised the demon much more than even seeing the being in his room to begin with. Wordlessly the being upturned their hands, the prayer position still held. Suddenly the hands separated and a bright shining light omitted from their palms. The light blinded Angel, he emitting a curse as he blocked the light as it persisted. The hands remained level as the hands continued to separate, arms slowly extending outward. The being then turned their hands upwards towards the sky as the arms extended their full length; the hands sliding back towards their torso until their elbows hit their body, the arms at a ninety-degree angle to their torso. The light started to fade away then, Angel eventually lowering his hand as the light became more bearable. As his eyes adjusted once more they landed onto a sword, the air escaping his lungs as he saw it.

It was the most beautiful sword perhaps anyone would ever lay eyes on. It was a long sword, the blade itself of the purest and shiniest steel almost as if it gave off its own radiance. At the hilt on the blade there was a design of multiple knots with six wings interlacing around the knots. The hilt was two tones, the cross section being gold with pairs of blue sapphires atop a similar knotted design on each side of the rain guard. A silver shield was in the center of the guard, two golden winged dragons with their backs turned holding up the shield. The grip was silver, appearing to look like the dragon’s scales coming up to the pummel in the shape of a crown. The pummel itself was another crown, more ornate and golden, spires of fleur-de-lis decorating its tops, another, larger sapphire sitting inside the crown.

Angel Dust felt his heart drop into his stomach as he eyes the long sword, his palms sweating. His body locked up, the tension running through them comparable to a violin string about to snap. The demon felt like all the air in and around him was sucked away, he finding it trouble to breath as his hands twitched. The Heavenly being brought the sword closer, it laying daintily on their finger tips. “You know what this means, Anthony. Believe me when I say that I wish it was not you, but you are the only one the Heavens trust in Hell. I know your spirit, Anthony, and you will not falter when the time comes.” The air came back then but it burned Angel, he swallowing thickly as he felt his eyes were about to burn off. “Please, accept it.”

Silently the spider demon brought up his upper right hand, it dangling over the hilt’s grip for a beat before it dropped down on it gently, as to not offset the balance of the sword on the being’s hands. The moment his hand tightened around it the sword dissolved into light, being sucked into the spider’s body, the glowing heading up his arm and into his torso before once again fading away. The demon looked at the hand then, palm facing him as his heart pounded in his chest. The Heavenly being backed away then, the train of the dress being pulled back as it then magically wrapped around the being’s feet neatly. “Thank you, Anthony. I know you will not disappoint the Heavens... in fact, you still have not.”

Angel inhaled again, mouth agape as he finally looked up to the being, eyes remaining on them as light glowed brilliantly from above them, shining as if it were a demon being redeemed. Wordlessly, the being bowed their head as they lifted off the floor, floating upwards towards the Heavens. Angel closed his eyes, willing the tears that wanted to fall to remain inside himself as he tried hard to keep breathing; he finding it difficult like he was being smothered—

—Angel Dust awoke with a gasp as he pulled the comforter off his face, it being the item that was disrupting his breathing. He panted heavily as he tried to catch his breath, a hand coming up to his chest. He looked around the room now as light streamed gently from the windows. The spider demon glanced to the bed, seeing that the Radio Demon was gone. Looking around Angel noticed a note at his bedside table, quickly reading it to see that he had woken up earlier and headed downstairs, he letting the other sleep in. The spider demon groaned and placed his upper right hand on his head, his eyes scanning the room for any abnormalities. He didn’t see or feel any. “Was it really just a dream?” He asks himself, he suddenly pulling that hand away to inspect it. “It felt so real though…” He mused to himself before shaking his head. He had slept in long enough and the others were probably waiting for him downstairs for breakfast.

But even as the spider demon got dressed, he couldn’t shake the feeling that his dream meant something.

</|\> </|\> </|\>

A couple weeks had passed since the night Angel Dust experienced a surreal dream. Over these past weeks his anxiety had gotten slightly better but it was still underlying every other emotion he felt. He was thankful that the hotel kept him busy, for once, as every resting moment was plagued with his dream and the over empowering sense of dread he couldn’t shake off.

The spider demon walked down the stairs carefully, his eyes lingering on his upper right hand. It began to tingle in recent days but the demon couldn’t tell if it was because he was making it up in his head or if it truly was tingling. It would only really tingle when he looked at it, as if his hand was trying to communicate with him. Maybe he inhaled something, or consumed something he shouldn’t.

“Angel!” His name was heard then, compelling the spider demon to look up as he reached the bottom of the stairs. His eyes met with Alastor’s, the demon standing in the lobby with his staff in his hand, a wide smile on his face. “Glad I caught you, darling.”

“Alastor.” Angel greeted back, walking up to his partner. “Did ya need somethin’?”

“No, dear, I’m just heading to the station this morning and I didn’t know if you needed something from there.”

“Oh, no, I’m good, thanks, love.”

Alastor lifts one of Angel’s hands and places a kiss to it gently. “I’ll be back shortly. Most likely after your orientation ends.”

“’Kay.” The spider sounds out gently as he presses his lips against the deer’s cheek, watching as the other turns and leaves the hotel, a sigh escaping him as the doors closed.

“Wow, you guys are like a married couple.” Talia comments from the front desk, smiling broadly at Angel.

The spider demon glances at her and approaches the desk. “Well, we’ve known each other for so long…”

“Would you guys get married?”

“It takes two to get married.”

“Which… there are?” She asks, her eyes narrowing in confusion with an added head tilt for effect. 

“No, like…” The taller demon sighs. “He needs to want to get married, too.”

“And you don’t think he won’t?”

“I… I’m not sure.”

“But of course you want to, right? Oh, I can just see it now! It would be so pretty to see you wearing a white dress! It might wash you out since your fur’s white. Maybe a colored dress? Pink—oh, no _red_! His colors! That would be so sweet! And he should wear white… or pink. Or both. Your colors. That would be the most—“

“I don’t wanna talk about this, Talia, sorry.” Angel interjects, raising a hand to stop her.

She sighs heavily but gives a shrug. “Sure thing, boss. Oh, but you haven’t asked for the smokey-smoke recently. Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah, I think it was just a phase or some shit.” Angel lied easily as his hand started to tingle again.

“That’s good. I’d hate to think what Bambi would have said if he found out you were having issues and you didn’t tell him. You two seem to talk about everything… or, well, _mostly_ everything. Why is it that you never told him that you were stressed?”

“Everyone’s stressed.” He deflects quickly stepping back from the desk. “I gotta go, orientation is comin’ up.”

“Sure… are you sure you’re okay? You seem very avoidant today. Angel?”

The spider demon ignored her as he proceeded down the hall to the conference room, inhaling deeply and mustering a wide smile before entering. “Hello everyone, welcome to the Happy Hotel!” He greets the room filled with demons, hearing their comments of how he’s the Fallen angel, how pretty he is, he’s the one that does the readings and so on. All things he’s heard multiple times before. He walks down the aisle, rows of chairs on either side of him as he approaches a desk with a laptop on it, cueing up the title slide and grabbing a remote to turn on the projector hanging from the ceiling. “So if ya don’t know, I’m Angel Dust, you’ll see me runnin’ around every day so feel free to say hi if ya wanna.” The projector turns on after finally warming up, revealing the title slide saying ‘The Happy Hotel Orientation! – Your One Stop Place for Communication!’ It wasn’t Angel’s first choice of words but it was the princess that made the slide show. “So, obviously this is an orientation so I’m gonna introduce the staff to ya, point out some things ya can do during your stay an’ where ya can find some of these activities. There’s a pamphlet up here Vaggie made that has the weekly schedules. They’re typically the same every week but if there’s any changes we’ll let ya—“

“Cut this shit out.” A demon interrupted from the middle center of the room. Angel looked towards the parrot demon. He’s used to being interrupted, after all this _is_ Hell and quite frankly the whole slide presentation was boring as shit but it was his job and saved time for those even interested in the activities. “Just get to the point about the ‘readings’ that’s all we really give a shit about.”

The spider forced a smile, channeling his inner always-smiling Alastor. “I will get to that later in the presentation. There’s a certain order to things. Now anyways, on this next slide is a layout of the main floor where—“

“I could care less about this crap! I just want the fastest way out of this literal hell hole.”

Angel chuckles softly. “Ya an’ everyone else here. Most of the activities will be on—“

“And what gives with the whole readings shit anyway? I asked the squirrelly broad at the front desk to get me signed in but there’s like a several months waiting list.”

Angel’s hand gripped tighter around the controller in his hand, the tingling getting worse in his right hand again. “I will get to that but if ya _must_ know it’s ‘cause I can’t do too many a week. As I was sayin’—“

“You’re charging extra for this shit an’ I gotta sit here and _wait_ to get serviced. Fuck that shit! I ain’t sitting in this hotel to wait my turn.” The demon persisted, getting a couple slap backs from other demons in the room telling him to stop talking.

The spider released an exasperated sigh, placing the controller down as gently as he could muster as he nearly glared at the patron before him. Though yes he’s been interrupted before, it was never to this extent and he’s feeling more than irritable today. Perhaps he should have gotten Talia to gas him earlier. “I’m gonna mention this later but some demons who sign up for a reading get redeemed before it even happens that’s why it’s important ya stay here an’ do the activities that interest ya the most. It saves ya money—not that ya need it in Heaven an’ it doesn’t go with ya—but _again_ I’m gonna explain it all soon. Now if ya can just—“

“If it’s the issue of money, I’m loaded.” The parrot demon croaks out, nonchalantly waving a hand in the air getting more hisses from the demons in the room. “What about I pay you a little extra, for your troubles, and I get moved up? Say today?”

The spider felt his hands twitching as his heartbeat seemed to fade away in his rising anger. He full on glared now at the parrot demon, his hands curling into fists at his sides. “Sir, I can’t do that. Bribery ain’t accepted here an’ will, in no doubt, cause issues an’—“

“Oh, screw that! Just name your price!”

“ _Sir_ ,” Angel said through clenched teeth, the air tightening around him, “I said, _no_.”

“Oh, come on, you ex-winged cock, I ain’t that much of an issue.” The demon fluttered his own wings out as he sat, hitting a pair of demons on either side of him in the face. “Hey, and if ya want, I can fly you around before I go, so you pretend you’re flying again! How does that sound?”

The spider demon growled lowly, the pair of demons that got hit standing up and scowling at the parrot, other demons yelling their disdain and discontent, some even voicing their shared opinions with the readings. The ex-angel sighed heavily and ran his upper hands into his hair at the same time. “Lord preserve me…” The spider demon heard himself saying, a saying he hasn’t said even as an angel, it almost tasting weird on his tongue as the chattering in the room got louder the parrot now squawking as he smacked down the two demons closest to him.

“Fuck off! You limp dicks can’t touch me! I’m gonna get my ass up to Heaven one way or another! Like I said, money ain’t an issue, trannie. So how about you do yourself a favor—“

 _“I said no!_ ” The spider swung his arm then, energy rushing out and pushing the whole area before him back. Demons and chairs went flying and bundled up together as the parrot demon himself found himself suddenly slammed against the wall, chairs and other demons pummeling into him with brute force. The screams jolted the spider back to normal, a gasp escaping him as he covered his mouth with two hands. “Holy shit! Oh, _fuck_ , I’m so sorry!” Angel moved around the table, quickly giving a look over every demon he passed as he finally reached the parrot demon, helping a couple demons stand before kneeling before the collapsed parrot. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what got into me. Let me—“

**_Slap!_ **

Angel blinked as the claws dug into his check, the blood already starting to pool from the fresh cuts. A hand cautiously went up touching the injured cheek gently before eying the bird demon as he stood, cuts and bruises evident on the winged demon. “Fuck this shit! Is this how you treat your damn guests? Fuck off! I was gonna make you rich, faggot!” He climbed over the collected chairs around them, pushing another demon down to the floor as he reached the door. “You angels never change! Fallen or not, you’re just fuckin’ out of control!” He moved to leave the room, quickly stopping and glaring back at the spider. “And I’m getting a refund! Fuck this hotel!” As the demon left a couple stray feathers floated down behind him, the angry mutterings of the demon slowly receding down the hall.

The spider demon felt his right hand twitch and tingle again, tears threating to fall from behind his eyes. His head dropped then as he held the hand to his injured cheek, tighter now, his upper right hand in laying before him. Some demons approached him then, pushing some of the chairs away. “Hey, are you alright?”

“Ignore that ass wipe. Fucker probably doesn’t deserve Heaven anyway!” Another voice called out.

The words faded away as Angel felt his mind slip away, the burning sensation behind his eyes getting stronger. His lip quivered as he inhaled shakily, his body feeling cold all of a sudden. “ _Get out…_ ” He barely muttered, his shoulders slouching over now as he began leaning over his knees.

“I’m sorry, what? Can you—“

“ _I said get out!_ ” The white demon yelled again, swinging his arm again as a much weaker blast of energy was released, causing the demons nearest him to lose their balance. The rest of the demons in the rooms nervously and quickly escaped the room, mutterings and hushed sentences barely reaching the spider. As a sob ripped through him Angel brought his lower set of arms up to his face to catch the tears that were falling now, his shoulders shaking as he cried. “What’s wrong with me?” He cried into the empty room, shaky breaths trying desperately to calm himself down with no success.

It was not an hour later when the Princess of Hell came upon the room, her voice reaching him before she entered. “Hey, Angel? Are you in here still? We got some complaints but—oh, my goodness! What happened here?” She walks into the room and towards the crouched spider demon on the floor, she too kneeling to be eye level with the taller demon. “Are you alright? Angel, tell me what happened?”

“Just fuck off…”

The princess blinked. She was never once told by the other to fuck off. Maybe in jest but never did he mean it, and she felt that he meant it just then. “Angel, something’s bothering you, tell what it is. I want to help.” She reaches out then, hand about to land on his shoulder when it is slapped away, she gasping and flinching back at the sudden attack.

Angel looks at her then, eyes swollen and slightly red from crying as all of his hands drop, she gasping at the injury on his face that has long since stopped bleeding, the dried blood staining his fur. It had healed a bit by itself due to the natural regenerative powers most demons had, but it was apparent that the spider was not focusing on healing himself as it still looked almost fresh. A cut like this should have been healed by now.

“ _Fuck off!_ I just wanna be alone! Can I just get a goddamn fuckin’ break?!” Angel Dust stands suddenly, slightly losing his own balance at how quickly he stood, and walks around her, Charlie hopping onto her feet to follow behind him quickly but his much longer legs made it harder to keep up; she was basically running after him.

“Wait! Angel! Please, let’s just talk!”

“What part of _fuck off_ do ya not understand, princess?”

Charlie falters then. He also hadn’t called her princess since she asked him not to on his first day in Hell. Something was seriously wrong and this was something that has long since brewing in the ex-angel. “Angel, _please_! I… don’t make me order you!”

The spider turned on his heels quickly then just as the hallway ended and opened up to the hallway. “ _Ha!_ ” The demon scoffed, attracting the attention of Talia and Vaggie who were in the lobby at the desk, talking about none other than the complaints on Angel Dust. “That’s rich. Finally gonna cash in on the ‘I’m your Fallen angel’ token? Took ya long enough. Oh, wait! I’m already your fuckin’ bitch! Look at everythin’ I did for this shit hotel!”

Charlie breathed out haggardly, her feelings instantly hurt at his harsh words. “No… Angel that’s—I appreciate _everything_ you’ve done I—“

“Fuckin’ can it! Just… just leave me alone!” The spider turned again, bee lining it to the elevator, his steps faltering as he almost tripped on himself, his upper left hand coming up to quickly grasp at his chest. “ _Fuckin’ can’t breath…_ ” He mutters, the tears renewing themselves as he jams the button on the elevator.

Charlie rushes to Angel, Vaggie stepping away from the front desk just as Nifty and Husk entered the lobby, carrying items for the bar, stopping as Charlie once again reached for Angel. The doors to the elevator opened and once again before the princess could reach him the ex-angel twisted around, pushing his hands out and physically pushing her back with the added assistance of his energy, the Princess of Hell flying back across the lobby, sliding painfully to a stop before the entrance of the hotel. “Charlie!” Vaggie and Talia yelled as Vaggie rushed to her girlfriend.

Angel released a shuddering breath as he entered the elevator, quickly pressing the button to close the door and riding the elevator up as Talia ran from the desk to him, just missing the elevator. “Angel!” She yelled as she watched the numbers on the elevator climb up higher and higher.

“What the hell is happenin’?” Husk grumbles as he and Nifty set their things down by the desk. Nifty shrugs, at a complete loss.

As Vaggie stands Charlie up, her elbows bruised from hitting the ground, the Radio Demon enters the door behind them, the two females whipping around. He scans his eyes over them, eyes glancing up to see the eyes of Nifty and Husk staring down the hall to them. He chuckles then, looking back down at Charlie and Vaggie. “I leave to run a quick errand for a couple hours and the hotel nearly falls apart!” He comments. “Tell me dears, what’s happened?”

“Ask your boyfriend!” Vaggie immediately says, glaring at the Radio Demon.

“Vaggie, no! I’m sure he didn’t mean it!” Charlie states, looking back to the deer demon who now has his eyes narrowed, his smile losing some of its diameter.

“Say what now?” He asks his red eyes once again scanning over everything.

Vaggie begins to walk down the hall, her hands on Charlie as Alastor follows wordlessly, listening to the moth demon carefully. “We got some complaints from Angel’s orientation and Charlie went to go check it out—“

“Some complaints on his presentation? There’s always a complaint on how boring it is."

“Not this time.” Vaggie states as they reach Husk and Nifty still standing by the desk. “Some patrons were saying he went crazy!”

“After a demon was constantly being rude! That guy Talia mentioned!” Charlie stated in Angel’s defense. “And I don’t think you got a good look at Angel before! On his cheek he had—“

“I think he’s going to the roof!” Talia yells, joining the rest of the staff, she pointing upwards. “The elevator stopped at the top floor!”

Alastor looked at the elevator, confirming Talia’s words, his eyes narrowing even more and his staff suddenly appearing in his hand. The air thickened as dark shadows came around the staff. “Oh, shit!” Husk cursed as he tried to escape. “Ya ain’t gonna transport us—!”

</|\> </|\> </|\>

Angel slammed the door open to the roof, instantly wrapping around the door to lean against the wall by the door, trying to take large breaths of fresh air as his lungs burned. “ _Why can’t I breathe?”_ He cried, taking one of his lower arms to wipe away at tears as he turned towards the gardens. He was thankful no one was up here as he really didn’t want to hurt anyone else. The strained gasps escaping here were almost as if the demon were drowning in water, he struggling to take a breath of air as he was slowly sinking below the surface. His hand remained at his chest, tightening on his jacket even more. A whimper left as he continued to try to calm himself, to breathe, to stop his body from trembling, to get the damned tingling in his right hand to just fucking stop. The spider demon looked to the sky, the tears slipping back towards his hairline as his eyes were dragged to the connection point to Heaven in the sky. His vision blurred and the tingling turned to numbness in his hands. “ _Fuck_!” Angel yelled as he turned his gaze away from that to his hand, holding the hand in the air as he glared at it. “What the _fuck_ is wrong with ya?!” He yelled at it, or more towards himself, as he gave the hand and added shake for emphasis.

At that moment the staff appeared from out of the shadows behind them, all of them but Alastor groaning and moaning at the sudden transportation. “Angel!” Alastor spoke, immediately moving towards the spider. “Darling, are you well? Is something—“The words stopped as he stopped moving, Angel turning to face him, the red eyes immediately landing on the cuts on the other demon’s cheek. “ _Who_?” The Radio Demon asked, his tone dangerously murderous as static popped.

The spider sighed and shook his head, turning away from him once more. Alastor moved forward, now the staff on his heels as they surrounded the ex-angel. Alastor stood before the spider, placing a hand on his chin to drag Angel’s gaze up, red eyes scanning over his mate’s face. “Fuck!” Vaggie cursed as she finally saw the wound. “Did that demon do this?”

“ _Which demon_?” Alastor growled, eyes moving to Vaggie.

“That’s hardly important!” Charlie interjects, concern flooding from her eyes as she stares at Angel. “Angel obviously isn’t feeling well and overworked. We need to help him first in that before we can worry about—“

“The demon that hurt _mon ange_ is out there and I am to ignore it?” Alastor contested, releasing Angel’s chin as he turns to face the princess.

“We get it, Alastor, you’re pissed.” Vaggie instead answers for Charlie. “But we _can_ get to that later. Angel just pushed Charlie in the lobby and—“

The arguing began then between the three demons as Nifty and Talia inspected Angel closer, Husk hanging back as he groaned and chugged from a bottle of booze. “Spindly Arms?” The squirrel asks carefully. “Do you need anything? Maybe the calming gas?”

“Why is your magic always the answer to everything?” Nifty asks then as green smoke begins to form in one of Talia’s hands.

“Well, it’s how I died! I might be kind of obsessed… maybe. Actually, fun story about that, did you know it’s actually really easy to make your own carbon monoxide? You just need some—“

“Talia, focus!”

“I _am_ focusing!” Talia claims. “But I wanna tell my story and—“

“Is that really necessary? Angel doesn’t need a story he needs—“

“Fucking interrupt me again, shortie.”

"But you're interrupting me! In fact you interrupt everyone!"

Angel exhales slowly as two sets of arguments continue around him. The prattling from both groups sounding distant in his mind as he once again looks at the connection point in the sky. The longer he gazed at it the more it seemed it was getting bigger, which is not something it does. It remains the same size even on extermination day as the angels just file in and out in organized lines. Making it larger could lead to perhaps a demon army getting through which was not to Heaven’s liking. The spider’s head tilts to the side as he blinks quickly in succession.

Wait.

It _is_ getting bigger.

Angel blinks again, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating, the numbing sensation in his hand changing to a burning one, as if he was holding his hand over a candle. The spider looks at that upper right hand again for a brief moment before looking back up at the connection point again. He opened his mouth to speak when the thunderous sounds of horns rang out throughout all of Hell, making the demons flinch. They all looked up at the connection point then, eyes wide as they finally noticed the connection getting larger and larger, the horns continuing their ominous sounds. “What the _fuck_?” The cat demon cursed as he finally joined them; booze all but forgotten in his hand as it dropped to his side.

Charlie stuttered, her heart pounding in her chest. “It’s not extermination day… why are the horns…?”

An echoing pounding sound was heard then, an invisible force pushing through the air and through all of Hell as it whizzed past the demons. Charlie placed a hand over her mouth, groaning as she held back a random bout of nausea. “Charlie? What’s wrong, sweetie?” Vaggie asks, she not at all feeling any effects of the energy. “What _was_ that?”

Before anyone could respond, Angel held his hand over his mouth and stomach, quickly rushing over to the nearest garden bed and vomiting into it, he barely making it as he still got some of it on his hand. Angel groaned as he took a look at his hand, seeing that it wasn’t vomit but blood. With a muted groan he stood up, Alastor behind him, already pulling a handkerchief out and quickly wiping the blood off, first from around his mouth and then his hand. “Angel, dear, are you alright?” The deer demon asks him then. Angel glances to him, reading the worry in his love’s eyes and seeing the slight quiver as Alastor continued cleaning off the blood. Once he was finished, Alastor burned the cloth in a small flame and reached up to touch the injured cheek gently. “Please, dear, tell me what’s wrong.”

Angel shook his head, words not coming to him at the moment. The demons directed their attention back to the connection point, seeing that as they were distracted with the blast of energy, a massive army of angels were lining up in Hell’s sky, more pouring out from the widened connection point as they lined up. It was the most angels Hell had ever seen at once and it seemed that more were coming. One angel, one like Angel used to be like, flies out before the armada, large white wings beating in the air. Her full armor stood out against her tanned skin, illuminating brightly in Hell’s sky. She wore silver boots coming to her knees with gold accenting, gold pants coming up to meet silver plating coming out of her hips. White cloth came from the front and back of her torso, a large collection of guns and knives around it. The silver armor continued around her torso, golden bracers, platelets and shoulder pads accenting the armor around the torso. Brunette hair was braided, just barely coming over her shoulder as two twin swords were between her wings.

The angel formed a white orb in her hand, bringing it up to her face as she began to speak into it, it projecting her voice throughout all of Hell. “Sinners of Hell,” she began, her voice cold and uncaring, “I am the Dominion called Vasiariah. For years we have purged your numbers to maintain population control. In the past several years we have had _another_ objective; to destroy the establishment called ‘The Hazbin Hotel’. For years we have failed, but no more!” Her wings beat with vigor, her voice now sounding crazed. “In the name of our Lord and Savior, I shall strike down all of Hell and raze this ‘Hazbin Hotel’ to ashes! O’ mighty is our God and in Their name I shall be victorious!”

“W _hat?!_ ” Charlie screamed then, not believing what she just heard. In that moment her phone started to ring and she immediately went to it, seeing it, remarkably, was from her own father. She picks it up, putting it instantly on speaker. “Dad, what is happening?” She asks immediately. “Did _you_ know of this?”

“Charlotte,” his voice rings out over the phone, he sounding as if he too suffered from the blast of energy earlier. “You will return to the castle _immediately_.”

“What? And leave the hotel and its guests? No, I won’t!“

“Charlotte, please my daughter,” the King of Hell begs, his voice sounding more desperate than she thinks she’s ever heard it before, “it will be safer for you here. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

“What is even happening, dad?”

A beat passed. “Heaven has declared war on Hell, Charlie. And we laughably unprepared.”

</|\> </|\> </|\>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so happy to bring my character Talia from “A Song and Dance” over. She can be annoying at times but she’s got a good heart. Like all my names for the OC angels they are all based from real angel names from the Bible (thanks Google). Vasiariah is the angel of Justice. Take from that as you wish, it can be ironic or simple truth.
> 
> Anyways… yeah they’re fucked. Place your bets now:  
> A) There’s going to be a lot of death.  
> B) Obviously the dream had to have meant something… right?  
> C) A miraculous happy ending!  
> D) I don't even know. I hope C my heart wouldn't be able to take it.
> 
> AUTHOR RAMBLINGS: I’m honestly not really sure how this is going to turn out by the end of it. Like I know what’s going to happen, it’s all planned out, and I like the idea but it’s a bit… farfetched. Even for me. But basically I have a couple crack ideas and I’m finally running out of ideas for this AU so maybe in like… two or three more stories this series will be done (at least one will have multiple chapters). I think. Maybe. I’m not sure. Who knows? I apparently don't. But alternate universes are a wondrous thing. I already made an AU of this AU and fundementally this main version could have two different endings and you all can just pick whichever one you like best and ignore the rest. So... yeah. That's all I'm gonna say for now...
> 
> "Angels are actually dicks" has some big energy here. More so in the next chapter.
> 
> Happy birthday to me! 06/11! Go Geminis! :D


	2. Hell's Skyfall

</|\> </|\> </|\>

The silence that followed after the King of Hell’s declaration was deafening. The hotel staff stood there, stunned and quite frankly in disbelief. The princess felt shivers run throughout her body as he held onto her cell phone tightly. The whole reason she started the hotel was to _save_ her people from the angels’ attacks and now it was her hotel that brought them to their door. She swallowed thickly, holding back tears as she mustered her voice to come out calm even admits the starting panic in the streets below them. “I-I’m not leaving the hotel.”

“Charlotte, this isn’t up for discussion.” Lucifer’s voice sounded over the speaker.

“I don’t care!” She yells then, glaring at the phone. “I made this hotel to save as many of our people as I can! I’m not going to abandon them! Not in their hour of need!”

“Stupid girl!” Lucifer insulted. “Do you really think Heaven will stop for anything? This is _war,_ not an extermination where they have limits!”

Charlie inhaled sharply. “You may be a coward, but I am not!”

“ _Excuse me_?!”

Vaggie exhaled then, her mind racing as she looked around the roof, her eyes landing on Angel Dust as Alastor stood protectively between him and the angels miles away from them in the sky. “The shield.” She speaks then, her eyes square on the spider demon. “Angel, what about the shield?”

The spider demon forces himself to look away from the army, eyes blinking slowly. A curt chuckle escaped him as he shook his head. “Sorry toots, it takes me a whole day to prep for a spell like that. I don’t got the power at the moment—seein’ as that blast seemed to only attack those with angelic origins.“ He eyes the princess, she meeting his gaze for a brief moment before he looked back at the moth demon. “Lucifer is right that we’re unprepared. Any Fallen angel is severely weakened now; Heaven planned out everythin’. ‘Sides,” Angel adds, his eyes redirecting towards the angel horde. “Even if I _could_ bring it up, who knows how long it’ll last an’ if I can even bring it up in time… we’re sittin’ ducks.”

The silence came again as Vaggie looked to Charlie for any other ideas. The Princess of Hell swallowed again, eying her phone for a second. She held her head with her other hand as a headache started to come on. The other staff looked at each other in fear and at a loss of what to do next. The Radio Demon’s shoulders squared off as he turned back to his mate, seeing how those mismatched eyes seemingly were glued onto the attacking army. “Angel, we’re leaving.” He states then, grabbing one of Angel’s hands.

“What?” Vaggie sounded out as he easily grabbed all of their attentions, including the spider’s as he looked into the deer’s red eyes.

“I can protect you better at the station. Their main target will be here so if we get away we might have a chance.”

“You _can’t_ leave!” The moth demon chided as she spawned her spear and pointed it towards Alastor, he glaring at the weapon and then at her. “You’ve protected the hotel this whole time and now you’re bailing?”

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn about the hotel. I will choose to protect my angel before all of you.”

“But Alastor,” Charlie started, stepping forward to him, “we can’t possibly even have a chance without you. Or Angel even if he’s weakened.”

“If I recall, princess, I was to stay here for ‘as long as I desire’. I no longer desire to be here.”

“Well, shit!” Husk cursed then as he quickly finished his booze, chucking it off the roof. “If Alastor’s leavin’ I ain’t stickin’ around to die.”

Talia chittered, her tail wrapping around her in nerves. “I’m leaving too! I don’t want to die where I work! That’s lame!”

“You can’t leave!” Vaggie tries, looking at them with widening eyes.

“So what? You’re gonna force us to stay?” The cat demon glares at her. “No chance! I work for the Radio Demon, not ya so if he’s bailin’ an’ not forcin’ us to stay here, I’m out!”

The Cyclops demon stepped between both groups, hands raised in the air. “Wait! Maybe we can come to a happy middle! I for one like working here and I don’t want it, or the demons inside, to be destroyed!”

“It’s no longer my concern.” The Radio Demon stated, glancing back to Angel. “Let’s go, _mon ange._ I will protect you.”

“Y-You can’t!” Charlie started as her father yelled once more from the phone.

“Charlotte! Come back home immediately! Ignore all that tripe! It’s an order!”

Both she and Alastor ignore the voice from the phone. “Even as the Princess of Hell, Charlie, you can’t keep me, or Angel, here.”

“I…” She begins, biting her lower lip as her heart hammers in her chest. “I’ll order Angel to stay!” She says then, the air automatically turning to static as the Radio Demon lets go of the spider demon to approach her, Vaggie immediately getting in between the two.

“Order him, _princess_ , and I can’t be held responsible for what I will have to do to keep him safe.”

“Back off shitlord!” Vaggie curses. “I knew we couldn’t trust you!”

“Oh, fuck off!” Husk states, flicking a middle finger to her. “Judgmental bitch! I don’t like him any more than ya but the fucker’s protected all of us an’ now that he ain’t no more it’s suddenly an inconvenience?”

“Husk defending Alastor?” The squirrel demon questions, her eyes blinking as she soon releases a strained scream, her hands pulling at her hair. “Shit! The world’s about to end for reals!”

“Hey, we can talk this out!” Nifty yells as the air gets thicker and more heated.

“I don’t want to die here! I was joking about wanting to find out what happens after you die a second time!” Talia screams as Alastor, Charlie and Vaggie begin to argue, most of it being between the formers.

“You’re wastin’ time with this pointless arguin’!” Husk complains. “I’m outta here!”

“Husk, no!” Nifty begs. “Please, stay and help me!”

“Charlotte!” Lucifer’s voice came from the phone’s speaker admits the multitude of sounds.

Angel Dust closes his eyes as the group’s arguing rings loudly to him, mixing with the much louder sounds of chaos coming from every corner of Pentagram City. His right hand, which has since ceased it’s burning and twitching, reached for his chest, clenching into a fist tightly. “Ya were always so theatrical…” He speaks softly to himself, his words not at all heard by the demons on the roof with him. He opens his eyes, a tear escaping his eye as he looked back at the army, which looked like it was preparing to attack finally. “Always pickin’ an’ choosin’, changin’ the rules when it suits Ya best… this is some joke but at least You’re gettin’ the last laugh. Your punch line’s somethin’ else.”

The spider demon inhales sharply and deeply, closing his eyes to calm his beating heart before quickly turning on his heels, heading straight for the Radio Demon. Wordlessly he placed his hands on the deer demon’s shoulders, turning him away from the argument, the static rippling in shock at both that movement and the sudden pressure of lips on his own. Alastor’s eyes widened, hands twitching around Angel, his eyes watching Angel’s face, those mismatched eyes closed tightly. Confused, Alastor’s hands land on the spider’s arms gently and his eyes not closing even as Angel broke the kiss, pulling back a full arm’s length. “Angel? Darling?” Alastor muttered, the static mostly gone from the air but still popping in random spots.

The ex-angel releases a breath and smiles brightly at the Radio Demon, his eyes shining with tears. “I love ya, Alastor. I always will, love. An’… an’ I’m so sorry.”

“Angel, what do you—“Alastor was roughly pushed then, landing backwards into Vaggie’s arms who awkwardly caught him while at the same time making sure the spear in her hands didn’t puncture the Radio Demon. With a flick of Angel’s wrist a shield came around the hotel staff, enveloping them in the invisible force. Alastor pushed himself out of Vaggie’s arm and rushed to the shield, his hands colliding with the inside walls. “Angel! What are you doing?” Alastor asked, his own heart now beating as if he were prey running from a predator.

Angel Dust didn’t respond as he smiled once more at his mate, turning so he face the army of angels, his profile to the rest of the staff. “Ya don’t need to order me, princess.” The ex-angel stated then, he refusing to look at them as he spoke. “I have my orders.”

“Say what now?” The princess questioned as she went to stand beside Alastor despite Vaggie’s protective pull to get her away from him.

The spider demon exhales slowly, bringing his upper set of hand together in prayer hands as his fifth and sixth arms came out from his body, his two lower sets of hands clasping together. As he stepped forward a prayer began to leave his lips. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” He started, his upper set of hands separating as he spoke, a light shimmering from between his hands as he pulled them apart slowly, his hands twisting as a glimmering sword appeared floating between his hands. He continued towards the edge of the roof as the prayer continued. “…I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…” Angel flipped his arms, his elbows together as one arm was up towards the sky and the other faced downwards, the sword flipping with the movement of his arms. The spider then whipped his arms back to the side, the sword cloning itself and spanning across the edge of the roof as he stepped up onto the edge. “…Thy rod an’ thy staff they comfort me.” Quickly opening his palms six swords flew into them the upper pair holding the swords properly while the lower sets held them backwards, the blades whipping behind him.

The demons watching him stood in muted awe at the spider demon, words not coming from them as they watched. However, Vasiariah, the Dominion angel leading the attack on Hell eyed the sword, even from her far distance, her breath catching in her throat. “What in Heaven’s name?” She asked, blinking as she couldn’t believe her eyes. “How did a _demon_ get the Hand of God?” She questions aloud as a ray of light, white and pure descended above Angel. Vasiariah whipped towards the enlarged connection point, glaring up at the Heavens. “You choose a _demon_ as Your Knight? Your Defender? A _demon_?!” She yells anger coming off of her in rolls.

Meanwhile, on the roof, the females gasped as Angel’s feet are lifted off from the roof, the white light shining behind him brightly casting no shadow. “Is he… being _redeemed_?” Charlie asked.

“N-No…” Vaggie stutters as she points. “Whatever is happening, it’s not redemption. Redeemed demons don't earn wings.”

Pure white wings sprouted out once more from the spider demon’s back, six wings stretching back in the light before they curl in before stretching back out to the sides, the wings illuminating brightly in the light from Heaven. The spider demon closes his eyes as another sigh escape him, the cuts on his cheek healing quickly. Alastor felt his hands curl into fists, Nifty quickly glancing between her boss and the spider demon. The light soon disappears, leaving in its wake a spider demon with wings, his outfit now changed to that of armor. His boots remained coming up to mid thigh though now it was the same silver metal angels wore. A golden cloth came down from his waist, a slit off to one side revealing one leg while it went down to the knees before it wrapped around and reached the heels behind him. Armor came off his sides, a golden design of six wings between a sword on both sides of his hips. The midsection of his armor had the same design, also in gold accenting. The rest of the armor was much plainer, with undersigned silver armor, golden platelets coming from the shoulders and from around the elbows as the armor went down to the wrists of all six arms. The pauldron of the armor was golden, coming up around Angel’s neck, the six winged design stretched out around the neck.

As Vasiariah turned her attention back Angel the demon’s eyes snapped open, the pupil in his right eye once again back to a brilliant blue like before he Fell, his left eye still remaining demonic in its black and pink pupil form. Within an instant Angel disappeared, as well as the line of swords in a powerful boom reappearing before at the front lines of angels he instantly cutting through an exterminator angel, its blue blood staining his armor and sword, before stabbing the two on either side of it, the swords reappearing as he pushed his arms outwards, the first line of angels all falling lifeless towards the streets of Hell. Angel beats his wings in place, glaring at the Dominion angel as the swords return to him to circle around behind him like a halo.

A growl emits from the Dominion as she swings an arm out towards the winged demon. “Don’t just laze about!” She yells to her army. “Kill the Fallen bastard!” The forces of angels move forward on the command and the swords behind Angel pointed their bloodied blades towards them, flying past Angel as they launched forward, Angel priming himself to attack again.

On the roof of the hotel Husk and Vaggie cursed, Husk stumbling back as the shield finally falls around them. “Angel!” Alastor yells as Charlie quickly grabs onto him as he goes to move forward.

“Don’t! W-We don’t know what’s happening!”

“I’ll tell you what’s happening,” Talia starts as she falls onto the floor cross-legged. “Angel got his wings back and is now kicking some serious ass!”

Charlie exhales at that statement and looks to her phone, seeing that the call with her father is still connected. She brings it up to her, her other hand still clutched onto Alastor’s arm, he now frozen as he watched his angel singlehandedly plow tough a couple lines of angels. “Dad!” Charlie yells into the phone. “Do you see this? What’s happening?”

</|\>

At the Magne estate the King and Queen of Hell watched the same thing the hotel staff were seeing—what _all_ of Hell were seeing. Charlie’s voice came through Lucifer’s cell phone. “What’s happening? Dad, please! If you know any—“

The King of Hell disconnected the phone call, snapping his fingers as he fell back into an ornate chair that spawned behind him. His lips curled into a deranged grin as laughter bubbled from him, his free hand slapping itself onto his face. His queen turned to face him as she stood on their balcony, her pair of black and gold binoculars brought down from her face. “That’s God for you! Always doing whatever the hell They want and changing the rules when it suits Them best! A _demon_! As their Chosen, you’ve got to be _shitting_ me!” He tosses the phone haphazardly behind him, it clattering on the phone somewhere behind him as his hand on his face drops onto the arm of the chair. “Well, They certainty know how to make a point. With this little show it’s plain to see Vasiariah is acting against Their will. Ballsy.”

“And cause for Falling.” Lilith states, an eyebrow raised at her husband. “If Vasiariah is going against Their wishes, why not damn her while she’s here?”

“That’s not how Falling works, my sweet.” Lucifer states, watching the battle with growing amusement. “To Fall, either an angel _chooses_ to Fall, either from the Heavens or already in Hell like in Angel Dust’s case, or they Fall from Heaven with a declaration _by_ the Heavens. Most likely this is another case where God lost control of Their angels again. They’re probably trapped in Their own quarters with the Seraphim protecting Them from a coup. This little show of picking a demon to be Their Knight and to protect Hell, of all places, from Heaven is God’s final way of saying ‘I’m shutting this shit down; try to argue with Me when I gave my Hand over to a Fallen angel in Hell'. Ironic really.”

Lilith felt her husband’s disdain from the balcony, she choosing to remain where she stood as Lucifer always became unpredictable in this state. “I believe you are being spiteful that the sword that would’ve been yours is within reach, O’ First Son of God.” She states with a slight tone of mockery, crossing her arms before her as she eyes him. He doesn’t move nor react to that besides blink. She turns her back to him and looks at the battle once more. “It is quite impressive, that thing. Angel Dust has already carved quite a bit of angels down.”

Lucifer chuckled again, a much calmer and controlled laugh coming from him. “Shame that he may not survive past all this. That much angelic power running through a demon’s body.” The King of Hell clicked his tongue as he sunk further into his seat, eyes narrowing as he watched the rest of the battle in silence.

</|\>

“He hung up on me.” Charlie sniped as she glared at her phone. She tried calling her father back but it was disconnected, not even coming though. “Damn it! He definitely knows something!”

“When does he not?” Vaggie quips, rolling her eyes. “But whatever this is, whatever Angel has become its… its powerful.”

“Angel is still Angel.” Alastor mutters, finally shrugging Charlie’s hand off him but remaining in place. “No matter what form he’s in.”

Nifty watches Alastor’s facial expression carefully for a moment before turning to watch Angel and his progress with the fight. She could see the winged demon slice through another two exterminators, their bodies falling towards the ground. Something distracted him as he whipped around, swinging an arm towards the ground as swords went flying in that direction. From behind an angel attacked and Angel barely blocked it, letting go of one sword to seemingly spawn a gun and shoot the nearby angel in the face. It was clear that Angel Dust was handling himself, but it was also clear he was getting exhausted already. He would pause in midair, linger for a moment before resuming again, swords flying in every which direction.

“He said he had his orders…” The one-eyed demon stated then, turning to face the others. “Who was it then if not Charlie?”

“There’s so much Angel had kept hidden.” Charlie states then. “I mean he snapped earlier today. Who knows how long he’s been this stressed out.”

Talia whimpered, wrapping her tail around her, her claws brushing out her frizzy tail. “For a while…” She mummers as she then groans loudly and falls back onto her back. “He’s been asking me to give him my calming gas for almost two months and for the past couple weeks he’s been really off. Like if someone told him his mom or sister died. He’s just been distant and more avoidant than usual. Which, he’s already an avoidant demon but—“

“And you just now tell us?” Vaggie questions, her tone a mixture of anger and disbelief.

Talia lifted her head up, tossing the moth a glare of her own. “He told me not to tell! I’m assuming he didn’t want to worry anyone, especially the princess and Bambi over there! And I certainty wasn’t going to piss him off! He’s scary when he’s angry! Though,” she glances to the Radio Demon who was still watching Angel, his back towards her, “I suppose I should have just said something earlier. The wrath of the Radio Demon is bound to be worse than the wrath of a Fallen spider demon.” Her head finally thudded back down to the roof, she wincing at the pain for a second. “But I’m ready for death! I think… we’re all going to die anyway! Alastor I think I would make a nice meaty soup if you survive and get hungry. Just make it quick when you decide to kill me, please. I’m not good with pain. That’s why I killed myself with poisonous gas. Less painful that way, you know?”

“I’m not going to kill you.” Alastor responded though he remained unmoving.

“Funny. That’s what Angel said. He trusts you a lot you know. More than perma-scowl over there.”

Vaggie groaned at the insult and rolled her eyes. Husk rubbed the back of his neck with a groan. “Look, this is all great an’ all, but I’d rather not die with you losers since I doubt Angel will hold them off forever or until they surrender so—“

From the hotel Alastor saw the exterminators suddenly all converge on Angel Dust, the spider demon slamming on the breaks in midair to be completely surrounded in seconds as if he were a wasp being attacked by defending bees. Alastor inhaled sharply and tensed more as he watched. Moments passed and suddenly the ball of angels were broken apart as a bright light emitted from within, swords flying from the center cutting away at the angels to reveal Angel far worse for wear now. The winged spider demon now had weapons sticking in him, wings beating weakly as a little extra magic flashed, the weapons all being yanked away at once. However just as Angel did that, Vasiariah released her own magic, a white flaming orb cannonballing to him, smacking into him with immense speed. Alastor watched as Angel was pushed by the orb into the roof of a building only to be propelled off the roof and into another building, smoke emitting from the impact.

The Radio Demon released the breath he had inhaled and his hands turned to fists. “To hell with it.” He said then as he spawned his staff and disappears into the shadows all at once.

“Alastor wait!” Charlie yelled as she moved to the edge, being joined by the rest of the staff, minus Talia who merely sat up from her laying position. The princess watched as the shadow moved from building to building heading straight towards Angel. “Damn it. He’s going to get himself killed.”

“Well, so is Angel!” Nifty argues, glaring at the taller demon. “Angel is sacrificing his life for us, for all of _Hell_ and Alastor is to just stand by and watch him die without doing anything?”

Charlie gasped and looked back to the battle, seeing as the exterminator angels were starting to descend into Pentagram City, their obstacle of Angel being downed finally. She clenched her own fists at her sides, her heart hurting at the war, her people about to be killed off, Angel’s sacrifice, Alastor’s love for the Fallen angel and for her hotel, her family, her friends. What kind of ruler is she to just stand by and watch? To not try?

Frankly, that would make her like her father who is probably sitting in his room watching from the safety of the castle. Where he wanted _her_ to be at. Where no doubt her mother is too.

A growl left the Princess of Hell as her eyes turned red, horns sprouting from her head. “Fuck it.” She says then, turning on her heels to walk away from the edge. “I’m going to fight.” She says as she turns back around, a pair of black wings breaking free from her back, some feathers dropping from them as she unfolded them, rolling her shoulders at the weight of them.

The demons blinked at her as Talia quickly stood. Vaggie approached her, hands out before her pleadingly. “We can’t think to fight them all. We better stay here and protect the hotel.”

“I’m not going to let Alastor and Angel do all the fighting for me.” Charlie insisted her eyes jolting back to the battle for a moment. “I am the Princess of Hell. It was my hotel that brought the angels here and now all of Hell is being threatened. I’ve been relying too much on Alastor and Angel to defend the hotel; it would have been fine if they just kept attacking the hotel but now this is too much. Instead of just focusing on my passion for the hotel I need to be a leader. The people need that now more than this hotel.” She finished inhaling deeply to calm herself before slowly releasing it. “But I’m not leaving this place undefended. Husk, Talia, Nifty.” She says, pointing her gaze to each of them.

“Yes, Your Highness!” Talia says quickly, slapping her ankles together and saluting the princess, Nifty and Husk eyeing her before Nifty too squared off, clasping her hands before her as Husk remained relaxed.

“You three are going to stay here and take care of the hotel. Tend to the guests and allow anyone wanting to seek shelter to come in.” Charlie commands ignoring the facial expression Husk gave.

“Did ya not hear me earlier? I only follow orders from—“The cat demon began only to be interrupted by the two females beside him.

“Yes, ma’am!” The two said together, giving a nod to the princess.

“Talia,” Charlie called to, the squirrel demon’s ears and tail flicking at her name, “how long can you keep your toxic gas up?”

Talia blinked as the question settled in her head before a large grin came onto her face. “I don’t know!” She answers happily. “I’d be happy to try it out though. Does this mean I have permission to kill?”

Charlie, despite herself, smirked at the squirrel’s hidden personality type. “Just make sure you kill only angels and not hotel patrons, but knock yourself out.”

“'Knock yourself out'! That's funny considering I have knock out gas!" A giggle escaped Talia as soon after red gas came from her feet and her hands, pooling around her in the air and rising above her. "This is exciting! And here I thought I was going to die boringly!”

“Whoa, whoa, crazy squirrel with the toxic gas!” Husk cries out as he back away from the red smoke. Nifty too backs away as Talia goes to the edge of the building, raising her arms in the air to allow the red gas to cloud above the hotel, creating a ring around the hotel.

“Husk!” Nifty says then, reaching up and taking his hand. “While Talia’s doing that lets go check on the guests and defend them from the inside.”

“Excuse me? I didn’t say I’d do this!” Husk complained even as he was being dragged and pushed by the Cyclops demon back into the building.

Nifty turned and saluted Charlie. “Don’t worry Charlie! We got this!” She stated as she went inside, joining Husk.

Vaggie sighed in disdain and looked nervously to her girlfriend. “Please, Charlie. Please reconsider. You can’t go out there.”

“I won’t be alone, Vaggie.” Charlie assured, placing her hands on her shoulders. “Alastor, Angel and you will be there, and you can protect me.” Vaggie stuttered and without another word she was lifted into Charlie’s arms, yelping softly as she hugged her spear to her. “Talia, make a hole!”

Talia waved her hand in a circle, the gas opening up wide enough to create a path for Charlie and Vaggie. Charlie beat her wings and lifted up from the hotel, flying straight through the opening in seconds. “Bombs away, Charlie!” Talia yelled after them as she closed up the hole again. “Good luck! Tell those angels what for! Kick their asses! Destroy their assholes! Cut their heads off! Burn them at the stake! But leave some for me to gas! Gas chambers work nicely too! Even though I don't have a chamber... I wonder if I could get one made? Oh, the possibilities! Maybe pad the inside so it's nice and comfy for relaxation, sleeping, dying... There's a sauna in the hotel! That would make a good test for it! I just need to get some lab rats, or maybe mice? Guinea pigs? Or maybe all of them, multiple test subjects with different masses and—”

</|\>

Angel wheezed painfully as he opened his eyes, the sounds of screaming reaching him first before his eyes came into focus. Looking to his right he noticed he had broken though into a demon family’s home, the mother holding onto a child while the father held on to the mother, the three of them starring wide eyed at him. “Wassup?” He asked them, the three bolting from the room and leaving his eye line. Angel huffed and looked down, noticing a rebar pole in his side. “Ow.” Angel sounds out softly, giving a college try to pull himself off the bar only to wince at the pain and being too tired to force himself off it.

Groaning he rolled his head around before glancing down at his body. He was covered in blue blood, practically soaked with it. He could still see his armor under the blood but it was on there in layers, now being mixed in with his own blood. With a muted exhale one hand came up and touched where the pole was in his side, touching the warm blood before lifting it up. His blood was now purple, his mind slowly understanding what that meant. He had thought that the light from Heaven had given him his wings but now he doubted it. If that had been the case his blood would probably remain red but instead now he wondered if the sword’s energy had pulsed too much in him turning him into something between demon and angel.

Which means the light was just God’s theatrics ensuring that the angels saw what They had decided.

Great.

He rolled his eyes and let his head collapse back into concrete. As his eyes looked through the hole he had made in this building he could see the shadows of the angelic army descending onto him, he assumed to truly start their attack on the denizens of Hell and to make sure he was dead, which he also assumed he would be soon enough. With another groan he opened up one hand, the Hand of God sword reconstituting itself back in its hand and it told him that all other pieces were now collected.

Well, if he’s going to die best not to leave multiple Hands around. And he wasn’t about to be killed off without putting a struggle. The winged spider demon brought the sword before him, gripping the sword with another hand, swallowing as an exterminator found him, anther three joining it shortly. His vision faded, threatening to blacken out and Angel shook his head, willing his vision to remain at least for the next couple seconds. As he shook his head his eyes picked up the signs of movement, he quickly thinking it was an oncoming attack. Instead he noticed black tentacles reach up and grab the angels, ripping one in half, throwing down the others. A shadowed figure appeared before him as the blood from the ripped apart angel splattered in the air. Angel Dust blinked quickly, each blink bringing the shadowed being closer. With the last blink he saw the distinct red coloring, his heart figuring out who it was before his mind could even piece together what he was seeing.

“A-Alastor…”

The Radio Demon couldn’t help the sigh that escaped him as he leaned forward, bringing both hands forward in an offer to the spider demon. Angel set the sword off to the side and with two hands joined them in Alastor’s, immediately feeling the grip tighten on his hands in a silent apology. “In three… one, two, _three_!” Alastor counted, yanking the spider up on his promise, the spider wincing sharply as he’s pulled from the pole, collapsing into the deer demon’s body as his body shivered and shook in pain. The wheezing was loud in Alastor’s ears, sending nerves down his spine and causing his heart to hurt. He released one hand and placed it the now profusely bleeding wound, green magic glowing from his hand as it sealed the wound quickly.

A shuddering sigh escaped the spider as he slowly pulled away, standing fully on his two feet shakily. He noticed that behind Alastor the tentacles were fighting off attacking angels, defending them both. Angel took this moment to stretch, joints popping, winces escaping him, as he took some of his own magic and started to heal some of the wounds on his body. This fight was far from over and he was going to keep going until it was either over or he was dead. Whichever one came first. Without saying a word Angel Dust released Alastor, pushing past him slowly, as he was still weak from the last attack, only to have the deer demon grasp onto one of his wrist, pulling back gently to stop him. “Alastor, please.” Angel pleaded, his voice quiet. “I know I have a lot to explain but I can’t talk right now. I need to go back an’—”

“Angel, I can’t let you go back—“

“Don’t try to stop—“

“—Alone.” Angel released a quick breath, turning his head to look back at his mate. The Radio Demon, who was not smiling since he had walked up, smiled gently then as if trying to lift both of their spirits. “I may not understand what is happening, but I can see this is important to you. I won't leave you to do this by yourself. Not if I can help it.”

Angel felt his heart tighten as tears fell from his eyes. His breath shuddered as he turned slowly, swallowing as he ran into Alastor’s arms, immediately being wrapped by them gently, the arms tucked between two joints of a pair of wings. Being this close Alastor could see that all three pairs of wings were joined in three different spots, the largest wings being on the shoulders, the middle set midback and the lowest and smallest set of wings right above the small of his back; he placed his arms between the second and third set of wings, feeling that once familiar feeling of Angel’s feathers on his arms. “Ya are a wonderful demon, ya know that?”

“I have been told once or twice.” Alastor remarked, his smile growing on his face.

The two pulled back, smiled at each other for a moment before they both turned back to the opening, the tentacles still defending them from attacking demons. “They started attacking demons, if ya can handle the ones below the buildings I can cover the sky.” Angel said then, his tone serious as the sword cloned itself into Angel’s five other hands.

Alastor’s signature grin appeared on his face. “I can manage that, dear.”

“Are ya ready for quite the show, Smiles?”

“Born ready, darling.”

The tentacles dropped and at the same time Alastor dropped down onto the streets and Angel flew up, slicing an angel in half, the halves falling with a thud onto the ground beside Alastor. Tentacles and fire erupted from the street and Angel flew above, the dead angels falling to the ground like flies.

</|\>

The Queen of Hell felt a small smile on her face as she dropped the binoculars from her face. “It appears that the Radio Demon is in the fray now. Seems like he couldn’t leave well alone after all.”

“Ha!” Lucifer scoffed, rubbing his eyes. “For some reason I always thought that the spider would be the cause of his death. Didn’t think it would be this soon though.”

“I think it’s endearing. How much he loves him, I mean. It reminds me of someone else I know.” She smiles back at her husband and Lucifer chuckles, shooting her a wink. Lilith turns back to the fight scanning the horizon when she feels her breath get caught in her throat. She raises the binoculars to her eyes once more, her heart dropping as she confirms what she saw. “Charlotte.” She breaths out.

“Ah, is our daughter finally on her way?” Lucifer asks, his tone a mixture between bored and angered. “Took her long enough. I swear, she’s so obsessed with that ridiculous hotel of hers. I should—“

“I think she’s going to fight.”

“Say what now?” Lucifer asks, immediately on his feet to join his queen out on the balcony, ripping the binoculars from her to put them on his face. He quickly lands on his daughter; standing on a building wings extended as her girlfriend stands behind her, spear primed and ready to defend. He sees fire come from her hands as she begins to shoot it up towards angels in her typical pyrotechnical way, the angels erupting into hellfire and burning in midair. Vaggie does some quick work of a pair of angels, attacking from behind as Charlie fires more flames towards the sky, eventually releasing a large firework that catches several angels in its light; a single spark lighting them completely on fire with ease. “Fuck.” Lucifer curses as he hands the binoculars back to his queen with a soft apology of ripping them from her hands. “Is that girl an idiot? What does she think she’s doing?”

As if to answer his own question, Charlie emulates Vasiariah’s voice projection spell in the form of an orange flame in her hands. “Citizens of Pentagram City” Her voice echoed out, reaching her parent’s ears. “Heaven has attacked with the intent to destroy us all! I know that this is my hotel’s doing… and no amount of apology or promises from me will ever repay this pain and fear. But I _will_ stand against Heaven for my people! Do not fear! The Magne Princess is with you! And she will defend you! If you are able, stand with me against Heaven! We will not stand idly by while they threaten us! They _will not_ take away our home!”

As she finishes the orange flame turns back to red and she shoots that into an oncoming swarm of angels, lighting them on fire as she flies above the corpses landing where she once stood. The Radio Demon’s shadow appeared beside Vaggie and from where the king and queen stood they could see the two talking, Charlie overhearing before they broke away; Vaggie remaining on the roof while Alastor disappeared back between the buildings, Charlie grabbing a spear from an angel and killing it with it once she tore it from their hands.

“What is she doing? Does she really think the denizens of Hell will risk their lives to fight against Heaven?” Lilith asks as her hand clenches around the binoculars at her side. “They always hide away every extermination, with a few dumb enough to form a party to attack. She’ll be killed! Luci!” She looks to her husband then, worry in her eyes as he stared at her.

The King of Hell released a heavy sigh. “She’s leading, is what’s she doing. Even if no demons move to stand behind her… she’s proving that she _is_ our daughter.” He muses only to be distracted by the sounds of commotion down below him. He glances down and his eyes widen, seeing that demons are starting to shuffle out of their hiding holes, all with weapons in their hands as they make a stand. “What in the Hell?” He mutters as he looks around.

“Lucifer!” Lilith yells in shock. “Isn’t that Sir Pentious’ blimp?” She asks as she points at the snake demon’s rebuilt blimp as it appears in the sky, missiles and rockets launching towards the armies of angels.

“The fuck?” Lucifer curses again, a loud bang bringing his attention over to the far side, his eyes widening again as none other than Vox’s demonic form crashed out of the porn studios, a large television with cables to walk on and swarms of his own transformed electronic beings flying around him. “ _The fuck_?” He repeats, not expecting the egotistical Vox to assist, especially since his nemesis the Radio Demon was also fighting against the angels. This means the two of them were working _together_ towards a common goal.

“She… she actually did it.” Lilith mused as she felt a tear bubble up in one eye. “She inspired them to fight!”

Her husband’s laughter beside her jolted her, she turning to face him. A gasp escaped her as she saw him transforming beside her. “That blast made me weak…” He stated as his body elongated and grew turning into a large snake, white scales forming on his skin and black feathers forming from behind his head. A pair of large black wings forming just a bit down the spine stretching outwards, eyes now red in his true demonic form. “ _Shall we go save our daughter, sweetheart_?” The echoing voice asked her as Lucifer curled around the banister, awaiting the answer from his wife.

A smile formed on Lilith’s face. “Gladly, dear!” She answers, flames going around her as she shifts into battle mode. Her black dress turns into armor, the top part coming just across her breast forming sleeves around shoulders. It ornately decorated in leaves and flowers, the armor being all black. It revealed her arms as the armor covered her legs, looking more like leggings than armor. Her shoes changed to armored heel-less heals, a pair of wings coming from her heels as the leaf and floral design came around the bottom of the shoes forming he heels. A red cape came around her back and a red skirt came down from her waist, covering her legs. Around her horns, red jewels were strung between them, her crown remaining as a dual sided reaper staff formed in her hands, the staff being all black with red veins of metal running through it.

As her transformation finished Lucifer began to fly off, Lilith jumping onto his back and standing upon it as he flew into the sky towards their daughter.

</|\>

Angel Dust landed roughly on his feet as he was pushed back down onto the buildings. He growled and replaced his middle set of swords with guns, shooting the angels that pushed him back. He immediately went back up, faintly aware that he was no longer alone in his fight against the angels. After Alastor joined him he saw the princess and Vaggie show up and he was about to shoo them away when it seemed they were handling things well on their own. The princess' declaration that followed had an unprecedented response, calling demons to arms and successfully doing it. A roar broke Angel’s concentration on the armies, which was now being fought both in the air and on the ground, as he saw a large winged snake demon flying towards them. A black clad figure jumped off of it, landing on a building and beginning to slash its way to Charlie. He recognized the two beings as the King and Queen of Hell and went back to fighting, getting momentarily distracted, once again, by fire erupting from Lucifer’s mouth burning several angels in the air as his jaws clamped down on another.

Angel flew up higher, slashing a head off an angel’s shoulders before shooting another. He paused for a moment once the air around him was clear. His breathing was labored and loud, his heart hammering in his chest due to all the adrenaline. He felt like his heart might burst with the amount it was running in his chest. He tried to take some deep breaths in and out, to steady and calm himself. At least the demons of Hell were fighting now, distracting a lot of the angels off of him. He felt the oncoming presence of danger and whipped around, shooting a pair of angels in the face, the bodies falling right before him. He willed one of the guns away as he ran a hand though his hair and down his face, to clean off some of the blood on it, his breathing much calmer as he took a momentary break.

“ _Angel Dust_!” A deep yell reached his ears, Angel turning his head to meet eyes with Lucifer’s demon form. The large snake pointed his head up as he beat his wings in place, his tail, which was wrapped around an angel, simultaneously flicking downward as he chucked that angel down into a building. “ _Vasiariah is getting away._ ”

At that, the spider demon whipped his attention towards the direction of Lucifer’s gaze. The Dominion _was_ indeed getting away; she had turned tail and is flying back up to the connection point, a battalion of angels defending her as she made her escape. Angel’s eyes glowed in agitation as a growl escaped him. “ _Not on my watch._ ” He growled out as he made sure he had swords in all six arms, quickly beating his wings as he flew towards her as quickly as his tired body could muster. He swung his sword at some attacking angels, twisting around one and kicking them down into a cabled tentacle of Vox. Fires from Lucifer took out most of the battalion defending Vasiariah, clearing most of his path. A portal opened up before Angel, he recognizing it as one of Alastor’s, his eyes narrowed and he flew into it, the portal closing behind him and reopening right behind Vasiariah. She felt the air shift behind her and she turned her head as she kept moving forward. Angel’s lower set of arms released the swords, the four blades flying to get rid of her angelic guard around her.

The Dominion angel’s breath caught as she looked back towards the connection point. She’s so close, just a couple more meters and she’d be safe.

At least, that’s what she thought.

She felt the blood drip down her back first before she felt the pain. A gasp escaped her as she looked behind her, the two different colored eyes glaring at her with an underlying sense of success. Her eyes moved to her back where she saw that her wings were no longer there; cut clean off by Angel’s two remaining blades in his hands. Her body twisted in the air as the sudden introduction of gravity begins to pull her down. Her screams echo as she falls, Angel whipping himself around to station himself before the connection point to Heaven, her screams only stopping as she finally hit the pavement. He watched as her body splatted onto the street directly below him, her blue blood pooling on the ground but her body was still twitching on the ground, a hand reaching pathetically up towards the connection.

Angel felt more anger bubble within him. Did she actually believe that she deserved to go back into Heaven? She, who had defied the Heavens and God Themselves. There were demons more deserving than her. With that thought in mind he figured he would exact his own judgment on behalf of God. The sword in his left hand faded into the true one on his right hand. He released the sword and it hung magically in the air under his right palm. Soon the sword pulled from Angel’s energy and cloned itself again, blades spawning around the main one in a cone shape before they all rained down on the Dominion. The spider demon watched with cold eyes as the blades covered the angel’s body down below him until he couldn’t even tell there was an angel under there.

Angel Dust inhaled as the Dominion was killed, spawning twin pistols in his upper hands as he shot an exterminator angel seeking to escape back to Heaven. Sighing, Angel remained on point to prevent any angel from running away, his eyes scanning the horizon as behind him the connection point began to tighten, a sign that the Heavens have also regained Their control on the angels. “I hope ya don’t mind, God,” Angel began as he shot another angel twice for good measure, “ya ain’t gettin’ back any of these guys.”

The mismatched eyes of the spider then scanned over the demons defending Hell. There were casualties on their side, that was to be expected. But his eyes landed on the Princess of Hell and her parents, fighting side by side defending their own Kingdom. His eye line moved to Vaggie next, whom had left Charlie’s side when her mother joined her, to fight along the denizens of Hell in the streets, she being their commander of sorts. “I never thought I’d see this…” Angel muses to himself and to God, for he knew that They were listening to him. “Hell workin’ together.” An explosion attracted his attention as he shoot another two angels out of the sky, his eyes landing on, of all things, Alastor and Vox fighting alongside on another; Alastor’s tentacles and Vox’s cables smacking down angels from the sky to the demons on the ground. “’Specially that.” He comments as a smile grows on his face. “I might owe Vox a ‘thank ya’ funnily enough.” A small, broken laugh escaped Angel as he scanned the horizon again. The number of angels had significantly dropped, only hand fulls of stragglers remaining now.

For Hell being unprepared for this battle, they managed it nicely. And it was in part to their princess for being so brave to rally the troops together. “She’s somethin’ else, God. She’ll make a good queen one day…” He swallowed as the exhaustion hit him once again, this time making his wings quiver as they felt like they could no longer even keep him up anymore. Angel directed his attention to the connection point right behind him, the temptation of flying through it, to go back to Heaven’s Gates compelling him to come home.

Angel smiled into it, the two pistols being traded out for the Hand of God sword, fading into his hands; the weight heavy as the rest of its clones disappeared as well, becoming one with it once again. “Thank ya for givin’ me this power to defend them. All of them. Ya didn’t need to do that but thank ya… thank ya for realizin' Your mistake.” Angel felt tears run down his cheeks, his hands clutching the sword tightly before gripping the sword's hilt in both hands, the blade down towards the ground and he brings it before his face in a salute to the Heavens. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” He quotes, his eyes shutting peacefully as his body begins to feel lighter, his arms and legs growing lax and his wings finally stop beating in the air.

Angel Dust falls backwards through the air, his hands gripping the sword in a death grip despite his exhaustion. He feels the wind rush past him but he keeps his eyes closed. He has found solace in this victory and above all else, he is content with the overall events of the day.

Though, Angel Dust never connects with the ground.

Two tentacles wraps around him and he remembers the memory of the moment before he Fell where he was pulled back away from the Power Camael who aimed to kill him. He feels the wind continue to breeze past him, but not as quickly, as he brought down gently into a pair of arms. He feels the hands tighten on his being, his large wings touching the floor, the feathers crumpling up on it. He opens his blue and black and pink eyes to stare into red ones, a warm familiar smile smiling down at him. “Angel, dear,” the voice spoke to him, loving and soft and caring, “I thought you said that ‘only one of us needs to fall that hard’. This is the second time you’ve fallen this forcefully.”

It was meant to be a joke. Albeit a bad one, but Angel Dust chuckled nonetheless. “I kept that promise.” He states, a smile remaining on his face. “It’s still just me that fell.”

Alastor brings the body of the half-breed closer to him. “We’ll get you healed.” He looks up and away from him. “Charlie! Angel needs help.”

Angel feels his smile drop, his eyes scan his surroundings. They are in the center of Pentagram City, in a park where he was attacked in decades before, the clock tower hanging above them reading off the countdown to the next extermination day. He saw that some demons had crowded around the park, the more notable ones being of course the King, Queen, and Princess of Hell, Vaggie, Alastor and even Vox, all of them in their normal states. Vox was hanging off far away but remained no doubt due to his curiosity about the interaction of his nemesis and his mate. Angel Dust feels his grip on the sword weaken as he feels Alastor move, presumably towards Charlie to meet her half way. His grip weakens so much that the sword drops and clatters on the ground, Alastor freezing to turn to face the sword discarded behind him. His red eyes meet Angel’s once more, worry in his eyes as he scans over his mate’s badly wounded body.

The winged spider releases a sigh and then swallows. “Don’t worry ‘bout healin’ me…” He says then, causing the deer demon to flinch.

“Don’t worry about it? Darling, we can heal you. You’ll be fine.”

At that moment Charlie arrives, her wings, long since put away. She scans over Angel’s body, wincing at the amount of cuts, bruises and scars on him. “I can try, Al, but… this is a lot and…” She notices the purple blood coming from his wounds, the blood dripping down on the ground below Angel. “… And he’s not even full demon.”

“Excuse me?” Alastor asks eyeing her pointedly.

“I don’t know how but… my instincts tell me he’s not full demon. And look at his blood! It’s a mix of angelic and demonic. I’m not sure if my healing powers would _actually_ heal him.”

“Charlie, we still have to try. He—“

“It’s the sword.” Lucifer’s voice rang out as he appeared above the sword, bending down to inspect it. “It’s called the ‘Hand of God’. It’s the single most powerful weapon forged in Heaven. In it was stored a limited amount of God’s power, only good for a one time use. Its power must have changed Angel enough to allow him to use it but not enough to let him live.” The King of Hell reaches for the sword, upon touching it a hissing sound reached all their ears and Lucifer pulled away, a scowl forming on his face as he stood up in defeat.

“What did you just say?” Alastor’s voice popped, the static thick in it.

“He’s going to die.” Lucifer said more plainly, as if he didn’t say it plainly enough, his head whipping to the Radio Demon. “Nothing you, or Charlie, or even I can do to prevent it. The Hand of God is only meant to be used by angels and Angel, despite his name, is _not_ an angel but a demon. It was always going to kill him, one way or another. Even if he didn’t use it I suspect it would have killed him at some point.”

“That’s insane!” Charlie yells as Alastor’s grip tightens around Angel. “How did he even get it then?”

Lucifer shrugs, his gaze going back to the sword. “The only being that even had this sword to begin with was God Themselves. It was stated that God would Chose a Knight to be Their Defender, someone They thought worthy of the sword and someone smart enough to know when to release its full potential.” The king scoffs then, resisting the urge to kick the sword. “And now its practically useless. It has bonded to Angel so its just a very pretty angelic decoration now.”

“But if God was the only one who had it, then how could They give it to him? Could they have arrived here at some point?” Charlie questions her mind thumping for answers. “Angel, how did…?” Her question drifted as she noticed that Alastor had long since kneeled on the ground, Angel now laying against him as the wheezing from the spider increased in volume.

Angel’s breathing was regular, calm, but strained, he struggling to breathe as energy left his body. The Radio Demon held one hand gently in his, the other propping the other up enough so that the large wings wouldn’t be too squished below his body. “Darling… why would you accept such a thing? Did you know what it could have done to you?”

“Yeah, I knew.” Angel responded quietly, a smile on his face. “I knew the moment I saw it. I took it ‘caused I promised… an’ ‘cause I knew I wouldn’t be gettin’ it if God didn’t want me to use it.”

“But _when_ dear? And how?”

Angel shook his head. “Ya don’t wanna know. An’ ya don’t need to know… sorry, love.”

Alastor shushed him gently, his hands twitching as the seconds ticked on. “Don’t apologize, dear. You saved Hell, after all.” Alastor chuckled, his smile was there but it wasn’t fooling Angel in the slightest. 

A pink clawed hand rose to grasp the side of Alastor’s face gently, a thumb moving up and down slowly. “ _Mi amore_ , save your tears for later. Vox is watchin’.”

Alastor chuckled again, but despite being told not to, a tear slipped from his eye, the smile no longer there. “Damn Vox.”

“Not to Hell I hope. He’s already here.”

The Radio Demon didn’t laugh, he couldn’t. Not as the tears slipped forth, a sniffle emitting from him. “I don’ wan’ ya to go cher.” He whispered, his accent soft and broken.

“I’m sorry, love.” Angel apologized, tears of his own escaping him. “But I hafta.” Alastor sniffed again, louder this time as his head dropped, his shoulders shaking as he tried to keep the sobs inside. With his whole body trembling, he held on tightly to Angel as if he could will his life-force to remain inside. “I’ll always love ya, Al.” Angel mustered the largest smile he could, his vision flooded with his tears. “I love ya… so much, Alastor. It was worth it Falling for ya. I’d do it again and again.”

“I love you... Anthony.” Alastor claimed, mustering enough self-control to get the Creole accent to back down, his own eyes blurring with tears as they fell onto his angel.

Angel inhaled softly, closing his eyes gently causing more tears to break away. His smile softened as he exhaled, his hand on Alastor’s face falling onto his body with a soft thud. The winged being's body got heavier in Alastor’s arms as the his head lulled to the side, the life from the demon now gone; gone in his own arms. Alastor’s body trembled more vigorously as static filled the air, symbols flying around them as his antlers grew, the dials in his eyes spinning through the tears.

The Radio Demon looked up to the sky then, his eyes landing on the connection point, his heart shattering in his chest, tears flowing from his eyes. An ungodly howl erupted from him, screeching his torment for all of Heaven and Hell to hear.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. I made myself cry. Twice. Oh, great joy it is to cause pain to myself.
> 
> This would be 1 of 2 ending choices for you lovely readers to select (mentioned in my note at the end of the last chapter). Not a good one; not in the least. And I myself am not too happy in my own decision. But the next chapter is where things start becoming too much for even me so… we’ll see how I feel after I actually write it but your homegirl's got some crack she wants to write down the line that requires this next bit. 
> 
> Anyways… if any of you guys said A or B for the poll congratulations! You win chapter 2! Give yourself a round of applause and maybe some tissues on my behalf. (I'm sorry!)
> 
> This chapter was inspired musically by “Skyfall” by Adele, that’s why I named the chapter as such. You may not care but here’s a breakdown of the song so you can see why: by around minute 1:24 is where Angel kills the first angel. By around 2:55 ish is when Angel gets smacked down into a building. 3:19 ish is when Alastor comes to the rescue as all good boyfriends do. By around 4:10 ish is when Angel chases down Vasiariah and totally kills her ass good. And by the time the song fades away Angel is falling (literally) back down to Hell. Boom.


	3. Where Heaven and Hell Meet

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The Radio Demon’s howl slowly disappeared into the air as he brought his head back down, it hanging solemnly over Angel’s body. With a shaky breath he pulled the spider demon closer to him, lifting him up so that he could nuzzle Angel’s face with the side of his own, no longer caring who was watching. He had lost the one being he had loved that greatly, the one he had cared about for decades. Gone in an instant. Gone because _he_ couldn’t protect him. Instead, as it turned out, Angel Dust had protected him and died doing so. His arms wrapped around the winged being’s upper torso, arms slipping between the joints of the blood stained wings. Alastor placed his head in the crook of Angel’s neck, inhaling his scent; a scent that never truly changed, no matter what form he took. He swallowed thickly as tears slipped loose from his now closed eyes. He couldn’t bare to move, holding his mate tightly in his arms, some part of him wanting to keep Angel warm since he was starting to feel oh, so cold. He nuzzled him again, another shaky breath escaping him as he pressed his lips gently to Angel’s temple his face soon going back to inhale more of the winged being’s scent… before it disappeared forever.

The Princess of Hell collapsed onto her knees as she watched their interaction. She held her mouth as she cried, tears flowing. She couldn’t believe that Angel Dust had died. That he had _willingly_ accepted such a powerful weapon he claimed to know would kill him. For all of _them;_ for the ones who made him work so hard just for success at the hotel. It broke her heart and she felt so guilty. She should have been less obsessed over the hotel’s success and more caring towards her friends. She sobbed loudly as she bent over at the waist, crying into her hands. The moth demon approached her slowly, she too falling onto her knees as she cried as well, an arm wrapping around the princess’ shoulders comfortingly.

Vaggie couldn’t believe the sight before her. She knew, of course, that Alastor and Angel loved each other dearly, but for the Radio Demon to show such weakness this openly was just the proof anyone needed to see how much he had loved the other. Her eyes go over to stare at Vox, whose gaze was intent on Alastor’s back. She felt her heart hammering in her chest as she kept her gaze on him. The way the television demon was looking at the deer demon made her uncomfortable; as if he were thinking that now would be his chance to finally get rid of his nemesis.

And perhaps it was. Some part of Vaggie doubted that the Radio Demon would move from his spot, even if danger was coming straight towards him. She kept her spear spawned in her free hand that was not around Charlie. Though she could never truly trust the Radio Demon and his power, she was not about to let anything happen to him. Not after helping defending all of Hell, not in the state he was currently in.

The King of Hell sighed heavily as he eyed his queen, she standing off to the side. He watched as she ran a hand over her eyes and heaving a sigh of her own. No doubt this spectacle before her was making her upset; she was always a sucker for romance. He, on the other hand, though he loved romance just as much, he was still king and he would not react over something he knew was going to happen; something that is but a hiccup in the rest of everyone’s else existence. He eyes the sword at his feet once more, it mocking him silently that it never became his. Lucifer rolled his eyes and moved to join his queen’s side, only to stop at a bright light coming from behind him. He turned on his heels, eyes widening as the brightest light of Heaven shown down behind him, expanding larger and larger as it proceeded towards them, the faint outline of a figure starting to slowly appear from the light.

“You’re fucking kidding me.” He curses as he inhales sharply. “Everyone, don’t let that light touch you! It’ll burn you alive!” He warns out, turning on his heels to go towards his queen.

Most demons began to scatter from the light, most of them ducking back into buildings, however some slower demons or ones that didn’t head Lucifer’s warning were caught in the rays of the light, instantly catching on fire as if someone had poured gasoline on them and struck a match. Vaggie restrained a curse as she watched a small handful of demons burn instantly to ash. She glared at Vox one last time before glancing at the light, quickly going to her feet and pulling Charlie up with her. “Come on, Charlie.” She mused softly as she tried to move her away. “Alastor! Get up! Leave him!” She yells at him as she pulls Charlie away, backing directly away from the approaching light.

Alastor didn’t move, he instead sighed as he glanced towards the approaching light, the figure walking in it becoming more and more visible. He dipped his head back down, not one fiber in his body even thinking about moving.

“Alastor!” The princess’ voice erupted then as she cried, trying to break free from Vaggie’s arms. “Get out of there! Angel wouldn’t want you to die with him!”

Alastor’s body trembled as the words sank in, he pulling back Angel’s body slowly to take a look at his face, one hand going up to palm gently at the cheek that earlier today was scratched by a demon. The Radio Demon wanted to speak, say something, _anything_ , to his angel but words wouldn’t come up. Instead he looked at the edge of the approaching light, just feet away from them now. With a dejected sigh he slowly laid the demon in his arms down, being careful of the wings and their placement since he didn’t want his angel to be uncomfortable—a thought that then ripped another chunk of his heart away as he reminded himself his angel was gone. With a growl he stood and walked backwards away from Angel Dust, eventually stopping besides Vaggie and Charlie, his eyes glaring at the figure that dared forced him to move away from his mate.

The being in question was now fully visible, if not still being bathed in the light. A crown was sitting upon the being’s head, golden roses and spikes of gold forming a halo around it. Their long white hair was tamed in a long braid, the hair stopping past their waist, golden ribbons tied within it. They wore mostly all white leather and armor, silver metal with golden swirled designs imbedded into the armor coming around from their neck and over their shoulders. Their breast was covered with plain white leather, a leather strap connecting the armor plating around their shoulders to a corset like metal armor around their midsection with the same swirly design throughout. Their arms were all exposed save for a pair of golden bracers at their wrists. A white peacock feathered cape was attached at their shoulders with golden claps in the shape of a dragon with a pair of wings circling it, the cape itself not dragging on the floor by mere centimeters. The armor continued down from the midsection over their left leg, the armor plating being held up with leather straps around the hips as it wrapped around the leg, knives being strapped to that piece of armor. A silver codpiece covered the genital region of the being, white pants coming down until they were tucked within white, heeled boots, the heels being made of golden metal. Golden eyes blinked slowly as they scanned the area, finally landing on Angel’s body.

The being, with their left hand, waved at the sword as they passed it, it rising into the air and following at their side. They lifted their right hand up, palm facing the sky, Angel Dust’s body being raised up from the ground. The Radio Demon went to move forward, being held back instantly by both Charlie and Vaggie, his body going ridged at their touch but he remained. With a small series of hand movements, those witnessed as the Heavenly being moved all of Angel’s six hands, placing the sword on his chest, as the hands then went to move around the weapon; the upper set on the grip and the middle and lower sets clasped carefully over the blade. With that, the being finally arrived at the lifted up body of the winged spider demon, a sigh escaping them, it heard silently by all in attendance, sending shivers down all their spines.

But then they spoke; their voice melodiously filling the air like chimes. “Oh, dear, Anthony. This is precisely why I did not want to give you that sword.” The being sounded forlorn as they scanned over the lifeless body before them, their golden eyes closing softly. “However I had no choice. No angel would have defended Hell, even with direct orders.” Their eyes opened, their eyes landing on the sword they had given the demon. “But you did quite well my child; no hesitation. Not even knowing what you would lose.”

The Princess of Hell felt her tears renewed at the sight of the being before her, her voice escaping her before she could stop it. “G-God?”

Golden eyes blinked up at her, the gaze quickly being interrupted by Lucifer quickly standing before his daughter, his voice threatening. “Why are You down here?” He asked them, eyes glaring at the being. “Haven’t You done enough?”

God turned tilted their head to the side, eyes now assessing the demon before them. “Ah…” The sound escaped them, suddenly sounding much deeper than the first voice; like that of a male’s. “Why, it is my First Son, Lucifer Morningstar: The Brilliant First Light of God.”

Lucifer tensed, shivers running down his body at his old surname and title. “It’s Magne now, _dad_.” Charlie blinked behind her father, eying him from behind before going back to God.

Laughter rang from the high being sounding much more sinister than one would place with the vision before them. “You need not worry, King of Hell. I have come for my Favorite and nothing more.” Lucifer growled, his fists tightening at his sides. God turned their gaze back to Angel, the voice now as it was before, more feminine and loving. “It is not often a soul can educate me; there is not much that I do not know.” They spoke, a hand gently coming up to land on Angel’s upper set of hands. “This soul here has now taught me three different times. Once as a human, where he taught me that whom my Children love is not a measure for damnation—they are still mine and I shall love them regardless of sexuality. As an angel he brought to my attention my admittedly harsh and quick judgment of The Happy Hotel.”

At the mention of her hotel, Charlie inhaled, a hand coming up to her chest, the heart beneath it beating quickly. “Y-You… You made a mistake?”

God looks back up at her, their smile warm on their face. “I do not come to make those often but even as a deity one is not without their failures. After all, my biggest failure is none other than your father.”

The insult stung in the air, Lucifer shaking in anger at it. Lilith joined his side quickly, yanking on his arm hard enough to move him away from before their daughter. “Calm yourself.” Lilith hissed at him. “Do you wish all of Hell to be destroyed? God Themselves is here and it will not take much for Them to change Their mind.”

Lucifer chuckled manically but said nothing, crossing his arms before him in defiance. “But I digress,” God speaks again, voice high and joyful, “I do owe you an apology, Princess of Hell. Anthony showed me around your establishment and it is indeed something wondrous. I applaud you for your effort in it.”

The Princess of Hell blushed, her voice stuttering as she asked all the questions that came to mind in one long breath. “You’re apologizing? I-I—when did You see the hotel? Angel showed You? You…”

God giggled, the sound _literally_ sounding as if it would twinkle in the air. “What a sweet thing you are. I can see why my Favorite here supported you as much as he did.” At the comment Vaggie slid herself before Charlie, just the tiniest bit, she feeling so off-put at the presence of the being before them and the blatant hatred between Them and Lucifer. “Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the third time Anthony has taught me something.” With that, suddenly the being disappeared, popping up immediately before Alastor about a meter away, just at the edge of the burning light. This elicited a squeak out of Charlie and Lucifer to propel himself forward, only to be stopped, albeit somewhat hesitantly, by his wife once more. The Radio Demon didn’t flinch but instead looked up at the taller being, eyes glaring with no fear at them. “Finally, Anthony taught me that demons did not have limitations when it came to love. Tell me, Radio Demon, as the one who took the heart of my Favorite; why is that demons have a higher capability to love more so than even humans and angels?”

The air was thick around the two; it reminiscent of a protective father trying to scare the boyfriend of their daughter. God blinked down at the deer demon, their face now neutral as they awaited an answer, if one ever came. Alastor stared unblinkingly at the other, a part of him actually afraid that if he blinked he would soon find his own life lost. The demon’s hands twitched at his sides, he could feel the nervous air beside him from the two female demons he worked with and he could feel the intimidating stare from Lucifer towards the Heavenly being even though it wasn’t directed towards him at all. He could also feel the heavy gaze of his nemesis, watching from a much farther and safer distance. A part of him wanted to twist his head to glare back at the television demon, his senses had long caught up with him as his instincts told him of the murderous intent from the other earlier. Instead he continued his face off with God, both of their faces neutral as the seconds ticked on.

Just as suddenly as God arrived before him, they turned on their heels, proceeding back to Angel Dust slowly. “I suppose you need not answer if you cannot think of an answer, or if you do not wish to. I cannot command you.”

Alastor felt his ears twitch; somehow getting the feeling that he was upsetting a child by not answering. Rolling his eyes faintly he spoke his answer aloud. “We’re demons in Hell because we sinned during our living life,” he began, God stopping to hallway turn back at him. “We either lost those we loved by death or by some other reason or we never had it to begin with. Once here, in Hell, you don’t expect to find love. So if you find it, no matter what form it’s in or whom it’s from,” The Radio Demon pauses to glance behind God towards Angel’s still floating form, “you hold onto it and protect it with everything you have. You love more greatly when it’s the only light you have in Hell.” The Radio Demon swallows then, trying to push back the building embarrassment from proclaiming that aloud before others.

God hummed gently, raising a hand to their face while they pondered. “I suppose that does make sense. I cannot think like a demon so I would have never proposed that as an answer. I thank you for your response, Radio Demon.” They suddenly disappeared again, reappearing on the other side of Angel Dust, their body facing the demons. “You have done so well, Anthony.” God said towards Angel, once again putting a hand on his upper set of hands. “It is time to go back home.” Slowly they leant over, feet lifting off the ground slightly to assist, as they pressed their lips onto Angel’s, Alastor once again going to move towards Angel, he against such an intimate gesture towards his angel. The edges of God’s being began to glow, that glowing light tunneling through their body and through their lips, seemingly entering into Angel Dust’s body.

Lucifer then exhaled in disbelief. “Are you… _shitting me?_ ” His anger was apparent in his voice as he finally shrugged off his wife, she going to hold onto him again but he dodged her hands.

God by this point separated from Angel and floated away a couple feet, their eyes lingering on Angel. As his body floated there, still and unmoving, the rest of the demons watched on. They were aware of Lucifer’s rising anger, he seemingly being the only one aware of what was happening so they knew that whatever was happening was _something_ to be angered about, though they didn’t know why. With baited breath they watched on, Alastor’s heartbeat sounding in his ears, his ears twisting forward. Gently, imperceptibly, Angel’s chest rose and then just as gently fell again. And then it did it again.

The Radio Demon’s eyes locked on that rise and fall of his mate’s chest, heart hammering more as he felt the tears begin again. He blinked, more tears slipping free as they travelled down his cheeks. Then, as softly as a butterfly landing a hand, Alastor’s ears picked up the faintest exhale as Angel’s eyes opened softly, the blue and pink and black eyes fluttering as they adjusted to the bright light they were bathed in. With a thick swallow Alastor ran forward, Charlie immediately reaching out, Vaggie holding her back. “Alastor! The light—!”

The said light split apart, as if Moses himself was splitting the Red Sea, just as the deer demon reached its edge, the light clearing a path straight through to Angel. The spider demon was magically being propped onto his feet, the moment he touched ground a heavy sigh escaped him as he used the sword to prop himself up, the blade’s tip in the ground. Turning his gaze to his oncoming mate, Alastor’s name escaped his lips softly, weakly. “ _Alastor…_ ”

“Anthony.” Alastor said as he finally reached Angel, his arms locking around his mate tightly, his face digging itself into Angel’s shoulder, the two of them slowly falling to their knees. “Anthony… my angel…”

“ _Hey, Smiles…”_ Angel chuckled, tears falling from his eyes as one of his middle and lower arms wrapped weakly around the deer demon. Alastor’s laugh was small, and soft as he hugged Angel even tighter, if that was even possible.

As the two mates embraced, their laughter and crying blending together, Lucifer reached the boiling point, his eyes turning red as the faint outline of scales started to appear on his skin. “ _Resurrection? Are you_ fucking _kidding me?_ ” His voice echoed, eyes glaring daggers at God as they lazily turned their attention over to him. “ _You… you always do this! You always change the rules to better suit yourself! This goes against Nature!_ Your _laws_! _And you just do things so haphazardly! You—“_

God’s eyes turned bright white then, their voice extremely masculine and reverberating as they spoke. “ **You dare talk back to me?** ” God raised their hand before slamming it down into the air palm side down. Instantly Lucifer’s body is slammed down into the ground, his body getting pressed deeper and deeper into the ground, the asphalt below and around him cracking the further he was pushed in. Lilith, beside herself, stepped back, her hands wringing together as she knew she was not even near close to powerful enough to help her husband. “ **You, who was the first to break those laws; you who dare judge _me_ for what I will it to be! I am Father and Mother to you and _you_ reprimand _me_ for what _I_ decide?**” Lucifer’s body is unseen now as God snaps their fingers aggressively, the snap echoing in the park as white flames engulf the whole Lucifer is buried in. “ **Let me remind you of your place, Ye First of The Fallen Ones!** ”

The flames burned brightly, the demons watching on in frightened awe as they all remained in their place, they knowing that just one step to help the King of Hell will most likely mean the same response. Angel eyes the flames with baited breath, the reminder of his own Fall burning in his mind. Alastor placed a hand on his head and forced the spider demon to look away, placing his head down on his chest so that Angel could hear his heartbeat. The sound of Alastor’s heart blocked out the flames, Angel calming instantly as he breathed out, closing his eyes as he waited for God’s Wrath to finally calm.

In an instant the flames whooshed away, disappearing as quickly as they appeared. After a beat the Queen of Hell ran to her husband, sinking into the hole to begin pulling him out. Charlie ran to her parents, Vaggie behind her, just as Lilith finished pulling Lucifer out, his body charred and twitching with pain. Lilith breathed out shakily, holding her husband close to her chest. “He will heal…” She says to her daughter, and perhaps to herself, as she tosses a light glare to the deity, a tear falling. “He will heal.” She repeats, her hands twitching with emotion.

Charlie’s breath wavers as she glances back to God, their eyes returning back to their normal golden irises. They moved their hands to their signature upside prayer hands as they directed their attention back to the pair of demons still clutching at each other. “Anthony, dear,” the feminine, sweet voice came back, “you shall indeed live but at a cost. You shall keep your wings and my Hand for you shall be the rank of Seraphim and be called The Guardian Angel of Hell. With your life you must continue to serve the Heavens. “ With a smile they added, “Continue to protect The Happy Hotel and the denizens of Hell from any other… overzealous angels. I am sure that some lingering negative feelings towards this day will endure.”

The winged spider demon stuttered, his mind racing. “So… does that mean I have access to Heaven?”

“Correct.”

“… Can I check in on the demons we redeemed?”

“Anthony, you are Seraphim and my Chosen. Nothing in Heaven will be denied to you now.”

Angel blinked and inhaled deeply, the weight of the words sinking heavily on his mind. He turned his body to face God, quickly bowing before him. He _was_ indeed God’s Favorite if he got his life and all those gifts just now. “Thank Ya, God, for Your kindness, and thank Ya for reviving me. Ya didn’t need to do that.”

God hummed happily. “I was planning on reviving you anyway but I much enjoyed your demon's response to my question. It really warmed my heart at how much love you two share towards one another.” God giggled then at the two’s facial expressions as it was a mixture of disbelief, annoyance and of slight anger.

“Are ya shittin’ me?” Angel sounded out, eying the deity pointedly. “That woulda been nice to know, ya know, when ya gave me the sword.”

They decided to ignore that statement and its blatant obviousness. “It seems that I have to return now. I did just finish reclaiming the Heavens, after all.”

“Fuckin’ unreal!” Angel commented on that, a hand rising onto his face in aggravation.

The being began to float upwards and backwards towards the Heavens, the light receding. “Take good care of him for me, Radio Demon.” God’s final words echoed as they disappeared into receding light.

Moments passed and Angel Dust groaned heavily as he dragged the hand on his face slowly downwards in aggravation. “Damn God an’ Their damned theatrics.” With a roll of his eyes he glances at the sword, it shimmering with light as it went back into his body. “What a fuckin’ day...”

“Is it wise to curse God like that?” The Radio Demon asked, a smile finally growing on his face. “They did bring you back to life.”

“I think They will allow some transgressions today so fuck it; damn God an’ Their damned theatrics. Always fuckin’ blowin’ shit outta proportion. Fuckin’ assholes. This was all _bullshit_." With a deep inhale and an equally deep, yet slower, exhale, the spider demon calmed if only but a fraction. "Now, help me up.” Alastor chuckled as he stood first, slowly bringing his angel to his feet. Angel glanced over to Lucifer who, too stood up with the help of his wife, Charlie torn between watching her father and looking at the two of them. Angel sighed, deciding it was best to leave Lucifer alone for a while least to incur his wrath; it was times like these he was thankful to be under Charlie’s command and _not_ Lucifer’s. “Al, can ya bring me home? I need like a hundred baths an’ to hibernate for a week.”

“As you wish, darling.”

“Hold up, wait!” Vaggie yelled then, running to the two males. “Are we just going to ignore what happened? Like, all day long? Just ignore that?”

The two males blinked at her, Alastor tossing a glance to Angel as the spider blinked again. “Listen, toots, I dealt with an annoyin’ ass demon, got slapped in the face, got sick, turned into a half-breed, fought off most of an angelic army, _died_ , an’ then just came back to life. I need a fuckin’ moment.”

Vaggie felt her jaw clench. “Right.” She said quickly as Charlie joined her. “O-of course, right.”

The Princess of Hell smiled then, a hand reaching out to him. “We can talk about this whenever you’re ready, Angel. And… thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve every done for us. Since you Fell, today, and in the future. And I’m sorry I pushed you too far. It won’t happen again.”

The spider rolled his eyes as he took a hold of her hand. “Don’t worry about it, babe. I forgive ya… but, uh, I really do need to pass the fuck out. I feel like I’m gonna pass out standin’ up.”

“Of course!” Charlie said, her smile wide. “Get all the rest you need, Angel. See you back at the hotel when you’re ready?”

Angel nodded as he leaned more into Alastor, the other demon in response immediately picking up the winged demon in his arms. “Can you manage a transport spell, dear?” Alastor asked, eying his mate carefully.

“Uh…” Angel sounded, his eyes unsure of the answer. “Maybe?”

Alastor rolled his eyes and continued to walk towards their home, not really wanting to risk a transport spell on his weakened mate. “At least God could have healed you.”

Angel blinked, a groan leaving him. “Yeah, that’s right! Goddamn it! Cheap fucker…”

The Radio Demon chuckled again, his eyes falling back onto his angel. With a sigh Angel Dust leaned his head on Alastor’s chest, his eyes fluttering with exhaustion. “You can rest, dear. I can wake you when we get home.”

With a yawn the winged spider demon nodded, eyes shutting as sleep overcame him. “Sounds good… thanks, _mi amore._ ” Not long after the quiet, muted sounds of gentle breathing reached Alastor’s ears as his mate instantly fell asleep and the deer demon couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face.

For that gentle breathing has by far become the most beautiful sound the Radio Demon had ever heard.

</|\> </|\> </|\>

“Hey, bitches, I’m back!” Angel’s loud voice echoed through the hotel a week after the Battle of the Hazbins, as it was so aptly called. The hotel staff awaited in the lobby with streamers and ‘Welcome Back’ banners, applause being heard by both the staff and the few patrons that were there.

“Welcome back, Angel!” Charlie happily cheered as she went up and engulfed the spider demon in a hug. As she pulled back she took a glance back behind him, seeing that the wings were gone, she also noticed that his eyes went back to normal, that blue pupil turning back to pink. “Your wings are gone.”

“Yeah, they can be put away like yours. It’s great for sleepin’. That’s the one thing I hated when I was a full angel; havin’ to sleep on my stomach so the damned wings don’t get squished.” The half-breed grinned then, glancing quickly to his side as Alastor joined him.

Though Angel Dust was given permission to take a longer break, he was starting to get stir crazy at the station. There was no amount of entertainment that his mate could produce that was enough for him. He missed working with the sinners at the hotel, as much as it tired him out. And he was quite fed up with the constant minions from Lucifer at their door, demanding that he come to the castle and discuss, properly, what happened that day. He had agreed, but only with the princess and Alastor there, at least. After all, he couldn’t well see his ‘master’s’ father without her being there. So after this little talk session at the hotel with the staff, the three of them were to go to the Magne castle and have this little chat the King of Hell wanted. The three weren’t looking forward to it, but it had to be done, and preferably quickly to get it out of the way. They all suspected that it was going to be nothing but a scream session by the king as well as a miniature threat session to not try anything funny, aptly to overthrow him; considering that now the Radio Dust and the Guardian Angel of Hell were now two titles synonymous with fear and strength and control and power respectively. In all honesty however, it was known to the staff at the hotel that Alastor never had plans of the full conquest of Hell and that Angel is, if not anything else, loyal to the princess and as long as the three's relationship remained good there was never a fear to the king's place of power. In addition, Alastor and Angel both agreed it's just easier (and calmer) for the Princess of Hell to naturally come into power as the next queen. There was just no need for a baseless war to overthrow the king when Angel was pledged to his daughter anyway; and this was all to be discussed later to hopefully facilitate peace with the King of Hell and to appease his anger of the events from a week ago.

Talia was the first to bound up to Angel, her tail flicking excitedly behind her. “I heard you _died_! How was that, dying again? Where’d you go? Do you remember? Please, tell me! It’s been bothering me for the whole week now! And I did promise them I wouldn’t ask about it immediately but I just can’t help it! Oh, and, guess what? I can hold up my gas for a pretty fucking long time! The whole duration of the battle basically! Isn’t that amazing!”

“Talia!” A multitude of voices sounded out, causing the squirrel demon to flinch, her tail wrapping around her. 

Angel laughs and waves it off. “It’s alright, guys. Um, let’s see, yes I did die, I’m not really sure I went anywhere ‘cause it was all black. I’m guessin’ my soul didn’t travel on since I wasn’t dead for too long or some shit, I ain’t sure. An’ uh, that’s cool about the gas thing. How’d you feel after?”

“Tired as shit!” She responds, her tail once again flicking behind her as she grinned. She just _knew_ that Angel would indulge her. “Not as tired as you were, I’d imagine, but I slept for a day! And I didn’t kill anyone accidentally!”

“That's great news! Ya did great Tals.”

She giggled at the praise, soon joined by Nifty as she jumped up and down. “So you’re a half-breed now? How does that work?”

“So, Al an’ I tested this out when we got bored, but apparently I’m as demon as they come an’ only really turn into a ‘half-breed’ when I transform into a Seraphim. Otherwise I can’t even summon the Hand in this form. I ain’t strong enough.”

“The Hand?” Nifty asks before the recognition sinks in. “Ah, the sword! Charlie and Vaggie told us a little bit of what happened out there.”

“An’ she told me ya guys defended the hotel.” Angel tossed a look to Husk, his smile growing. “Even ya, Husker, my pal!”

“I ain’t your pal.” The cat demon responded instantly.

“He did!” Nifty responded, smiling back at her friend. “He actually did really well! And he consoled some young demons and—“

“ _Shut up_!”

Alastor took the reigns then, appearing suddenly at Husk’s side, an arm draping around his shoulders. “Why, Husker, I didn’t know you had it in you!”

“Oh, yeah?” Husk sounded back, a blush of embarrassment rising. “Well, ya saved some demons out there! An’ fought alongside Vox! The hell’s up with that?”

“Hell froze over too that day, didn’t you hear?” The laugh track played at Alastor’s response and Angel giggled. It might as well of frozen over that day. Things were so strange and different that day.

Vaggie, for once chuckled, rolling her eyes. “I’m sure it might’ve if things weren’t already so crazy.”

“Well, Jesus!” Talia exclaimed, her eyes widening. “First Husk defending Bambi that day and now Vaggie’s _agreeing_ with him? Is Hell maybe freezing over today?”

The Radio Demon chuckled, his head tilting to the side. “Talia, dear, I really don’t appreciate that nickname.”

“Oh, come on! Angel calls you that too sometimes!”

“Yeah, but it’s me.” Angel says. “Plus is I say it in an accent which is hot. _Bambino_.”

Alastor’s grin twitched. “Angel, don’t encourage her.”

“So, if I say it in an accent like that it’ll be better?”

“I’d say give it a shot. Can’t hurt to try.” Angel says with a playful grin tossed to his mate.

“Angel, darling, what did I—“

The squirrel demon chuckled, turning to face the deer demon with a large grin on her face. “ _Bambino!_ ”

The Radio Demon felt a twitch in his body and his shadow grew over Talia, the squirrel demon immediately swallowing as she looked up, the deer demon suddenly glaring down at her. “If I heard you correctly, you said to turn you into a meaty soup. Is that correct, my dear? I do think that can be arranged.”

She squeaked and turned tail, ducking quickly behind the front desk, her head poking out in fear. “But you said you wouldn’t kill me! No fair!”

Angel laughed, covering his mouth with a hand as his laughter slowly turned into a sigh. “God, I missed this energy. Feels nice to be back.”

“Which, speaking of which,” Vaggie spoke up, bringing over a clipboard from the desk. “We decided to reduce your readings more and lighten up your work load for a while until you feel more capable of going back full speed.”

“Ah, well, I can just go Seraphim an’ do the readin’s, shouldn’t cause too much strain an’—“

“Uh-uh!” Charlie tutted, raising a hand. “I said I was going to make sure you’re never overworked again and I meant it! You just finished resting and Alastor and the rest of the staff don’t believe you’re quite up to full speed yet. Best to take it easy for now.”

“I get it, but—“

“No.”

“But I wanna test things out an’—“

“Angel, I said no.”

“What ‘bout goin’ to Heaven to check in on the redeemed souls? That should be—“

“ _No_.” Charlie and Alastor said together, their eyes staring holes into Angel.

The spider demon chuckled at their intense glares. “I’ll be probably safer up there, since I’m Seraphim an’ all. The other angels can’t—“

“For fuck’s sake, no!” Vaggie joined in then, rolling her eyes. She glanced at her watch and shook her head. “You guys should probably start heading over. Me and the others will hold down the fort.”

“Now you’re just avoidin’ the discussion.” Angel began, his eyes jutting to a wall clock. “We don’t even need to be there until—“

“We’re not avoiding.” Charlie quickly said, she texting her mother to inform her the meeting would be moved up. “Besides, we have a car ride to discuss things in.”

“Good so then—“

“But not work things.”

“Not work things? What else is there to discuss? I’m half demon, I can go to Heaven, an’ I’m bored! Let me get back to work!”

Charlie’s smile grew then, her face turning pink, Nifty’s own face mimicking hers as she bounded in spot. Talia squeaked from the desk and bounded back over, hands clapping together fanatically. Husk rolled his eyes and turned his back and Vaggie smiled—actually smiled—gently at something behind Angel. Confused, Angel turned on his heels, immediately gasping as he saw Alastor knelt behind him, a ring box in his hands. The Radio Demon smiled gently up at his angel. “Anthony, darling, will you—“

“Fuck yes!” Angel interrupted, instantly falling into his arms, upper arms wrapped around the deer’s neck while his lower set wrapped around his middle. “A million times fuckin’ yes!”

Alastor laughed as a blush spread onto his cheeks, a hand not holding the ring box landing on Angel’s back. “Do you even _want_ to see the ring?”

“Ah, sure!” Angel answered, his own blush quite red on his face and chest as he pulled away, his smile larger than anything. Alastor opened the box to reveal a white gold ring with a ruby at the center stone. Around the ruby were two lines of smaller stones in an alternating style of pink and black stones, both lines going down on either side of the ring. The sides of the ring were exposed with some of the white metal of the ring framing the openings. Angel sighed at the beauty of the ring, simple yet elegant. “Al… it’s beautiful.”

“Let me put it on you, darling.” He pulled the ring out as Angel handed over his upper left hand, the ring easily slipping onto his finger. The deer demon smiled at the ring, his possessive self being quite pleased that there was something on his angel that claimed that he belonged to someone. To _him_.

Applause once again was heard in the lobby as well as squeals from Charlie and Nifty. Vaggie rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on! You knew he was going to say yes!”

“Still!” Nifty sighed as she tried to cover up her own blush from happiness. “It’s such a good day!”

Talia leaned over Angel's body, blinking down at the ring. "Ooh, so shiny and pretty! Great design, Al!" She then gave the spider's shoulders a big hug from behind, Angel chuckling as he raised a hand to her arms. "Congrats, Angel! I'm so happy for you!"

The spider demon couldn’t stop smiling as he eyed the ring on his hand, his heart flying with joy. A stray tear of happiness fell as his eyes joined with Alastor, his mate smiling lovingly at him as he extended a hand out to him. Talia edged away as Angel placed a hand in Alastor's, the deer demon standing and then helping Angel up. Angel released a small sound of joy before leaning forward and kissing Alastor on the cheek. “Oh, God, I’m so happy!” Angel mused, his face in pain from smiling.

Alastor’s hand tightened around Angel’s, his heart still hammering in his chest. He wasn’t too nervous about the proposal, like Vaggie had stated there was no doubt that Angel Dust would say yes, that much was a given, but ever since Angel had died in his arms he had been nervous that he would lose him again, this time permanently. In all actuality, Alastor hadn’t thought about proposing. He was happy where things were at, his only real complaint being that over the years since Angel had Fallen, their relationship was eventually leaked and Vox and his friends Valentino and Velvet had been more tenacious than ever. Now he feared that after the whole park debacle with Vox watching the whole thing that the television demon would make another move. The Radio Demon never worried about it too much before—after all they were both strong—now it was all he worried about. Even now, with Angel being stronger as his ranking of Seraphim boosted his power and the sword was indeed quite powerful despite God’s power no longer being inside it, Alastor was worried he would lose his angel again.

The idea of proposing was brought upon by Talia and Charlie in an idle conversation one day when he went to the hotel to work for a moment. The squirrel demon had casually dropped how they had once discussed Angel wanting marriage but being too nervous, or perhaps unwilling, to discuss to Alastor about the subject. It was then that the idea was truly rooted in his mind. Charlie had mentioned that it would be something Angel deserved—since that would make him truly happy—but more than anything Alastor wanted something to tie them together even more. Marriage was more solidifying, more real, than their previous state of just being lovers. Once married they would be spouses bound together for all eternity (he’s going to make sure the line ‘till death do us part’ is _out_ of the vows). More than anything he wanted to be with Angel more than ever, to make him happy, to protect him better. And this time he would not fail.

But of course that required Angel to communicate more. And to be fair, they did discuss the lack of communication on the spider demon’s side during the week break for him. As a result the spider _did_ promise to never hold back on anything ever again—though marriage was still something he didn’t bring up but Alastor was glad that he could do this before the spider did bring it up, if he ever did.

And with that in mind, the princess moved to Angel, revealing that she took some photos after she had texted her mom, Angel immediately asking for those photos (Nifty also asking for them). Alastor kept his true smile on his face as he watched the demons before him, more specifically his angel. What he had told God when he answered Their question was as true as he could have mustered, his mind going back to his response as he stared at his mate.

Alastor’s smile was warm and his eyes softened as his voice broke the happy chattering. “I love you, Angel.” He said randomly then, the demons freezing as Angel looked at him; his own warm and loving smile being mirrored back to the deer demon.

“I love you too, Alastor.” The spider responded, silently going to his fiancé and enveloping him in a hug; Alastor didn’t flinch at all and hugged his angel back. The Radio Demon in that moment being truly content at where his life, and especially his afterlife, had lead him to.

And it was all thanks to an angel and a demon meeting in Hell.

</|\> </|\> </|\>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Edit 06/30/2020: I added a picture of Angel's engagement ring into the chapter so you all can actually see it. I was able to design the custom ring using a website I found AGES ago called "gemvara.com". They own the rights to the picture since it's from their website but it's a great website to use as a tool if you're designing rings for your stories since you can go in, edit the stones and color of the ring and it changes the image so that you can see it.**
> 
> I don’t hate this chapter as much as I thought I was going to but I still don't like it for whatever reason. It's not my favorite chapter in this series... and I even rewrote a couple sections like three times (each)... 
> 
> It sounds like a series end but I swear it’s not. My true ending will happen in about 2 parts from now which will include their wedding. But one could end the series here and it would be fine too so I guess there's 3 different endings. I'm just heading towards the end goal now I have no idea what my brain will spew forth.
> 
> AUTHOR RAMBLINGS:  
> I suppose that now Angel and Lucifer are almost on the same level power wise but I do still think that Angel is weaker than Luci by a decent percentage just because the sword itself is no longer as powerful as it was in the previous chapter. Plus, I went with the version of Lucifer that some Christians believe in which is that he was never an angel but like an actual Son of God like Jesus Christ was but Lucifer had wings unlike his younger brother, which is why it’s interpreted that he was an angel. (Thanks again Google for the research.) 
> 
> I was going to use the same ring design from Part 6 then changed my mind for a different ring considering their timelines are different. Many similarities between both but a lot more differences in comparison. 
> 
> AUTHOR COMMENTARY:  
> God be trippin' (theatrical asshole). Their trip level is like 100. I mean I love theatrics any given day but God takes it to a level that’s deeper that the Mariana Trench. I like the character though, regardless. They're fun to write.


End file.
